Team

Myriam SOCHACKI

External relations, Common Foreign Security Policy and European Security and Defence Policy (CFSP/ESDP)

Myriam Sochacki obtained a Master’s degree in French literature at Paris/Sorbonne, followed by a post-graduate training in communication at CELSA (School of Higher Studies in the Information and Communication Sciences – Paris/Sorbonne).

She joined the French Navy in 1984, reaching the rank of lieutenant-commander (capitaine de frégate). As a public relations and communications expert, she held several positions in that capacity, at headquarters, on shore duties, as well as in the field.  In 1990 she became head of the General Information Section of the SIRPA /Marine (Public Relations Service of the French Navy). During the autumn of 1990, she was press adviser to the admiral commander-in-chief of the French Navy in the Indian Ocean at the very start of the implementation of the UN embargo against Iraq and occupied Kuwait. From 1993 to 1994, she served as chief of staff to the commander of the helicopter-carrier Jeanne d’Arc, the training ship of the French Navy cadets. In 1994 she was posted at the Public Information Service of the Armed Forces, Paris, and volunteered to go to Bosnia-Herzegovina where, from 1994 to 1996, she was spokesperson in Sarajevo, first to the UN-led mission UNPROFOR, and later to the NATO-led mission IFOR. Her service there earned her official recognition as well as media attention.

In 1996, she ended her active duty in the Navy to become Head of Press and Information of the Western European Union, Brussels, the only European defence organization at the time.  From 2001 to 2004 she lived mostly in the United States where, as guest speaker on European security and defence policy, she participated in seminars at Princeton and Yale. Moving from the practical to the theoretical side of things, she developed a project on defence and security issues of the relations between the United States and Europe: she organized and reported on meetings of eminent European and American personalities, held in Lisbon in 2003 (A Euro-American contribution for a renewed transatlantic partnership) and 2004 (the Euro-American partnership and the challenge of failing states), under the auspices of the Luso-American Foundation.