General Rouby takes over as head of French military PR Brussels
(BRUXELLES2) It is a landsman who replaces a sailor. General (of the army corps) Gilles Rouby arrives (returns) to Brussels as head of the military representation of France both to the European Union and to NATO. He replaces Wing Vice-Admiral Xavier Païtard in this position. Today general of division, he will not have a great change of scenery nor great kilometers to cover. He is a bit like a fish in water in multinational military institutions. Since he has been head of the French military representation at Shape since July 2009.
General Rouby had previously officiated at the headquarters of the Atlantic Alliance, as number 2 at the permanent military representation of France, in 2008, when the reintegration of France into the Atlantic Alliance had begun to be implemented. In the work coordinated by Pierre Pascallon and André Dumoulin " What security and defense policy for Europe? », published in 2009, he notably defends this option, considering that it is complementary to the European option of the ESDP. He had also - and above all - written in 2004 an analysis on the EU and NATO, "partnership or competition" (download here). The post of "double-headed" military representative (EU and NATO) therefore seems tailor-made to him.
Trained in communications, General Rouby is used to dialogue with the press for having been at the controls of the Sirpa Terre; he previously headed the Employment Division of the Armed Forces General Staff. He had been mentioned for a while, in particular by my colleague Merchet (Secret Defense) as one of the potential future directors of the IHEDN, the Institute for Advanced Studies in National Defense. Institute of which he was an auditor during the 54th session in 2004.
