Aurelien Colson

Background

About Aurelien Colson

Aurélien COLSON, PhD MBA (Insta : aurelien.colson.30 / X:@AColson_) is professor of political science at ESSEC Business School and director of ESSEC's IRENE Centre on Negotiation & Mediation since 2008. He is also the co-founder and co-director of ESSEC's Centre on Geopolitics, Defence & Leadership. In 2024, he was also appointed co-academic director of ESSEC's new Institute for Geopolitics & Business. Last, he is the Head of the Law, Political Science & Society Department of ESSEC Faculty. His research on international negotiation, mediation and decision-making is published in peer-reviewed journals; he has been co-director of the Négociations journal (2013-2019). He authored or edited several books, translated into 16 languages. The French Académie des sciences morales et politiques awarded a Grand Prix to his research in 2008. Over the last 20 years, he has advised corporations & public organizations executives, in about 40 countries. He served as Adviser to the French Prime Minister (1998-2002). From 2012 to 2021, the European Commission appointed him as the Governance Team Leader for the European Union’s CBRN Risk Mitigation Initiative, which aims at reducing transversal threats in a global partnership gathering 61 countries. He has coordinated negotiation & partenership building training curricula for several corporations and institutions, including the European Commission, ENA/INSP, and the French Ministries of Foreign Affairs and of Defense (Ecole de Guerre). He likes sharing in an interactive manner negotiation insights & best practices collected through his consulting assignments. From 2014 to this day he has also been elected at city council level in the south of France.