The executive team

Christian Harbulot

An international expert in economic intelligence, Christian Harbulot has initiated research on issues of economic confrontation and power strategies since the mid-1980s.
Since the early 2000s, he has focused his work on cognitive warfare and content-driven information warfare. In January 2022, he founded CR 451, the EGE research centre dedicated to this approach.

Career in economic intelligence
In 1990, while serving as Director of External Relations at ADITECH (later ADIT, the national strategic intelligence company), he published “Offensive Techniques and Economic Warfare”. His work drew the attention of Edith Cresson, then Prime Minister, and led to his appointment as personal adviser to Henri Martre at the Commissariat Général au Plan to produce the report that would give rise to economic intelligence in France.
In 1993, he was recruited by the Groupe Défense Conseil International as Director of Operations for its economic intelligence department, Intelco. There, he carried out activities in conceptualisation, consulting, and awareness-raising on economic intelligence.
In 1997, he founded the École de Guerre Économique (EGE) with General Pichot-Duclos.

Contributions to reflections of national interest
2023: exercise on influence and information struggles for the École de Guerre class.
2019–2020: drafting of a scenario against a backdrop of information warfare as part of the organisation of an interagency OSINT exercise entrusted to EGE by the DRM.
2010–2011: member of the Scientific Council of the Conseil Supérieur de la Formation et de la Recherche Stratégique.
2007–2010: organisation of seminars for the CSRM on economic intelligence and information warfare (recruited for the occasion under Title 9 with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel).
2006–2008: participation in a DRM working group on information warfare, under the direction of General Georgelin, Chief of the Defence Staff, and General Masson, Director of the DRM.
2005: the only private-sector member of the “information manipulation” working group convened by Alain Juillet at the SGDN. Granted “confidential defence – special France” clearance for the occasion.
1995: participation, as Director of the Intelco department at DCI, in a working committee organised by Prefect Pautrat at the SGDN on information manoeuvres linked to the resumption of nuclear testing.2010-2011.
1992–1994: personal adviser to Henri Martre, Chair of the “Economic Intelligence and Corporate Strategy” group at the Commissariat Général du Plan.
1992: member of the Competitiveness Commission of the 11th Plan, chaired by Jean Gandois.
Latest publications
Co-author with Lucie Laurent and Nicolas Moinet, Economic Warfare: Who Is the Enemy? Paris, Nouveau Monde Editions, 2022.
Coordinator of version 3 of the Economic Intelligence Handbook, Paris, PUF, 2019.
The Art of Economic Warfare, Paris, VA éditions, 2018.
American Economic Nationalism, Paris, VA éditions, 2017.
The Makers of Disinformation: The Globalised War of Propaganda, Paris, Lemieux éditeur, March 2016.

Arnaud de Morgny

Researcher-practitioner and strategist in economic intelligence at the École de Guerre Économique, where he is Deputy Director of the CR451 Applied Research Centre. A specialist in cognitive strategies, economic warfare, and information destabilisation, he designed the Deindustrialisation Risk Index, the first French multicriteria tool for assessing industrial vulnerabilities. This index aims to anticipate early warning signs of industrial weakening.

His work focuses on cognitive warfare, the strategic use of information, as well as the dynamics of increasing power through the economy.

On this latter subject, he developed the concept of nationalist economic intelligence—a concept that posits that nations have legitimate interests in and of themselves to defend, and that these must be taken into account by economic intelligence analysts as such, rather than judged.

In parallel, he shares his expertise by teaching information warfare methodology at the École de Guerre Économique (EGE).

Previously, Arnaud de Morgny gained valuable experience as a parliamentary assistant in the Senate. During this period, he played a key role in developing the framework for a bill proposal aimed at creating a national Economic Intelligence programme. This bill proposal, submitted to the Senate on March 25, 2021, reflects his commitment to strengthening France’s analytical and economic intelligence capabilities.
Drawing on in-depth knowledge of French and European law and public policy, Arnaud de Morgny has worked as a trainer for two decades. His experience spans both elected officials and public-sector staff.
Alongside his academic activities, he has led audit assignments on behalf of international organisations and contributed to developing public procurement law strategies in support of French companies.

In 2023 and 2024, Arnaud de Morgny co-organised the first exercises on influence and information struggles within the École de Guerre, involving the entire cohort of officers and civilians.

In addition, Arnaud de Morgny serves as President of the School of Thought on Economic Warfare (EPGE), where he plays an essential role in promoting research and strategic reflection in the field of economic warfare. He leads and coordinates members’ work to develop a contemporary French doctrine of economic warfare.

Arnaud de Morgny co-edited—with Christian Harbulot and Nicolas Moinet—the second issue of the journal Guerre économique, entitled How to Win? (Nouveau Monde Editions, September 2023).

He contributed to the book on cognitive warfare (https://www.openscience.fr/Numero-1-783).

Articles:

• An overlooked victory: the creation in France of a private information market, in “Economic Warfare: How to Win?” (Nouveau Monde, 2023)
• For nationalist economic intelligence, in “Economic Warfare: How to Win?” (Nouveau Monde, 2023)
• How to move from an individual culture of combat to a collective culture of collective combat, in “Economic Warfare in the 21st Century” by Christian Harbulot (VA éditions, 2024)
• Use of cognitive warfare concepts and techniques in the French political arena, in “Ingénierie cognitique no7”
• PFAS and information warfare: analysis of a cognitive and normative confrontation. (Veillemag)
• Summary of the international symposium “Economic warfare in peacetime” organised at the Palais du Luxembourg. (Arnaud de MORGNY, Nicolas MOINET) in Revue internationale d’intelligence économique/ Perspectives actuelles en intelligence territoriale (R2IE 16-2)
• Deindustrialisation: an essential new tool to anticipate and prevent it (Portail de l’IE)
• Creation of the Deindustrialisation Indicator. (Interview in Veillemag)
• Resource geopolitics: Europe facing predatory strategies (interview in Diplomatie no 135)