Agathe Demarais

I am a senior policy fellow on geoeconomics & tech at the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR). My areas of interest include the global economy, the geopolitics of AI, trade wars, economic statecraft, and US-EU-China economic relations. In 2026 I also co-chair the Think7 (T7), the G7’s official engagement group for think tanks and research centres.

Before joining ECFR, I was the global forecasting director of the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), the research arm of The Economist. I led the EIU’s global economic and geopolitical analysis, with a special interest in trade developments, developing economies and financial risk.

Outside ECFR, I am a visiting professor at the College of Europe and an advisor to the policy planning unit of the French MFA. I am a regular columnist for Foreign Policy and a frequent commentator for the media. My essays have appeared in Foreign Affairs, The Economist, The Financial Times, The Times, The Journal of Democracy, Politico and Le Grand Continent.

I am also the author of Backfire, a book on the global ripple effects of sanctions and export controls. Backfire draws on my experience as an economic policy advisor for the diplomatic corps of the French Treasury in Russia and Lebanon. I also worked in investment banking in Russia and the US.

An economist by training, I have master’s degrees from Sciences Po Paris and Columbia University, where I studied as a Fulbright scholar. I speak fluent French, English, Russian, Arabic (Levantine dialect and Classical) and Spanish. I am based in Paris, with frequent trips across Europe.