Anne-Claire Legendre, Arab world expert diplomat, to lead IMA in Paris

Appointed on Tuesday to succeed Jack Lang as head of the Institut du Monde Arabe (IMA) in Paris, Anne-Claire Legendre is a seasoned diplomat whose expertise on North Africa and the Middle East is widely praised as she takes on the prestigious role of the instrument of French influence.

An adviser to French President Emmanuel Macron for North Africa and the Middle East since late 2023, she was elected Tuesday as president, on the recommendation of the French state, to take over from Jack Lang, who was brought down by the Epstein affair.

At 46, she becomes the first woman to lead the IMA. She is “competent, substantial and committed, with acute knowledge of each country that makes up the Arab world, whether North Africa or the Middle East,” an ambassador serving on the institution’s board told AFP.

The board comprises an equal number of Arab ambassadors and personalities chosen by the French Foreign Affairs Ministry — often nicknamed the Quai d'Orsay, after the Ministry's address in the French capital.

Originally from Brittany (in the west), this 40-something — recognizable by her short blond hair — speaks Arabic fluently.

She is a graduate of the prestigious political science school Sciences Po and of the Sorbonne University, both in Paris.

After holding various posts at the Quai d'Orsay — which covers half (12.3 million euros) of the IMA’s budget — she had already become the first and youngest woman to serve as French consul in New York in 2016, where she remained for four years.

French pushback

In 2020, she became an ambassador to Kuwait before being recalled to Paris barely a year later to become the spokesperson for the Foreign Affairs Ministry.

In this position, she sharpened the French pushback against Russian disinformation campaigns.

Within the Ministry, some have at times reproached her for being cold, in contrast to her weekly press conferences, where she appears particularly at ease, skillfully handling talking points while never straying from the official line.

The diplomat has helped raise the profile of the Ministry spokesperson’s role, increasing her appearances on television and radio to explain France’s stance on key current issues, particularly the war in Ukraine and the activities of Russia’s Wagner mercenaries in Africa.

In December 2023, Legendre became adviser on North Africa and the Middle East in the presidency’s diplomatic cell, in the midst of renewed Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Minefields

It was a delicate time for Macron, whose foreign policy in the region was criticized even among French diplomats as lacking clarity.

Around Macron, Legendre was the main instigator of France’s recognition of a Palestinian state last September, according to diplomatic sources cited by AFP.

This decision, which angered Israel, was followed by a cease-fire, but the prospect of a two-state solution, with both living side by side in peace, still seems in many ways elusive.

Nevertheless, this recognition remains “a strong point for all the Arab member countries,” to the diplomat’s credit, one of the ambassadors on the IMA board explains.

Beyond the delicate Israeli-Palestinian issue, Legendre is also someone routinely dispatched to defuse the most difficult situations, with varying degrees of success.

She will travel to Algiers in March 2025 to meet Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune and attempt to ease relations between France and Algeria before the two countries fall back into crisis.

In Lebanon, she is pushing for an end to the war between Hezbollah and Israel. An agreement was reached in November 2024 under which France is part of the cease-fire monitoring mechanism alongside the Americans.