<p><span class="p-body">The 2026 Paris GFI, led by <a href="https://www.sps.nyu.edu/faculty-directory/15274-chloe-demrovsky.html">Chloe Demrovsky</a>, was a week-long academic and diplomatic endeavor undertaken by MSGA and MSGSCC students. The trip deepened participants’ understanding of the Franco-American relationship by engaging with stakeholders working in fields critical to today’s challenges. </span></p>
<p><span class="p-body">“With the GFI honing in on issues relating to AI governance, sustainable finance, trade relations in the age of tariff diplomacy, and defense and innovation,” says GFI participant and <a href="https://www.sps.nyu.edu/explore/degrees-and-programs/ms-in-global-affairs.html">MS in Global Affairs</a> candidate Louis Grelot, “our group came in with the ambition to navigate the differences and commonalities that make the Franco-American alliance as critical as it was at the time of the United States’ founding.”</span></p>
<p><span class="p-body">The cohort met with key stakeholders who could communicate the stakes and strategic needs to meet head-on the challenges. “For Sustainable Finance,” shares Grelot, “we visited the headquarters of major international asset managers: Bank of America Paris, BNP Paribas, and the Banque Transatlantique. To engage with the most pressing issues in international trade, we had a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to visit BIC's Marne La Vallée factory to understand the strategic necessity of supply chain planning to build resilience to trade policy shifts or supply shocks, such as the one caused by the US-Israel-Iran conflict.”</span></p>
As an MSGA student concentrating in transnational security, I find that the GFI left few thematic stones unturned."
Louis Grelot, MSGA ‘27
<p><span class="p-body">Participants had an opportunity to engage with Les Déterminés, an incubator affording entrepreneurs from less-privileged backgrounds the opportunity to navigate the new business landscape presented by investments in AI and defense ventures. The cohort was also welcomed at the Ecole Militaire, where career officers presented thesis work on topics ranging from logistics from Ukraine’s frontlines to a first-hand understanding of the human-centered approach to man/machine teaming when applied to intelligence and decision-making processes.</span></p>
<p><span class="p-body">“Regardless of geopolitical upheavals and diplomatic tensions, there are critical integrations and relations between the two countries that will ensure that the alliance between France and the US remains a lasting one,” Grelot observes. “Being welcomed at the Ecole Militaire could easily have been the standout experience due to the respect I have for the professionalism and expertise of the French armed forces.”</span></p>
<p><span class="p-body">“The question of strategic sovereignty and security in the age of AI governance, and a return to openly adversarial dynamics, stood as one of the most pressing and recurring issues raised,” Grelot concludes. “I believe that the Paris GFI will guide my approach to transnational security by inspiring me to take on work relating to the governance of dual-use technologies and the integration of artificial intelligence into economic and military alliances.”</span></p>
