Following a distinguished career as a French diplomat - including spells as French Ambassador to the United States and French Permanent Representative to the European Union - he became the founding Secretary-General of the European External Action Service (EEAS) in Brussels, established under the 2009 Lisbon Treaty. As such, he was responsible, in support of the EU High Representative, for trying to establish a European diplomatic service, largely from scratch. He will reflect on this process and the EU's interaction with a series of major foreign policy challenges and crises during the years since 2010. He will look at how EU member states coordinate their foreign-policy positions, how cooperation between member-state embassies and EU delegations works in third countries, and whether the new Strategic Compass will make a positive difference in CFSP.