Thierry Balzacq is Professor of International Relations at Sciences Po and Professorial Fellow at CERI-Sciences Po.

He has been featured in the Stanford/Elsevier "World’s Top 2% Scientists" and listed in the top 1% for the subfield “International Relations”, since 2020.

In 2024, Thierry Balzacq conducted a study for the development of the future EU Diplomatic Academy (EUDA), on behalf of the diplomatic service of the European Union – the European External Action Service (EEAS).

He was the 2022/2023 Susan Strange Professor at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and the George Soros Distinguished Visiting Professor at Central European University (CEU) in Vienna.

A former Visiting Fellow at the Australian National University (2017-2018), Balzacq was awarded a Francqui Research Chair (Belgium’s highest academic title) at the University of Namur. He was formerly the Scientific Director at the French Ministry of Defense’s research center (2014-2016), where he contributed to the development of a multi-million euro program to support the study of security in France. Balzacq was Honorary Professorial Fellow at the University of Edinburgh (2012-2015) and Fellow for "outstanding research" at the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities. In 2015, Balzacq was awarded a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Diplomacy and International Security ("Tier 1 Chairs are for outstanding researchers acknowledged by their peers as world leaders in their fields").

Thierry Balzacq has held various appointments at McGill, the National University of Singapore (NUS), the Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam, The International Relations Institute of Cameroon (IRIC), Aberystwyth, the University Abdou Moumouni of Niamey (Niger), and ENA. He has published over a hundred and fifty books, articles and book chapters on comparative grand strategy, theories of security, and diplomatic studies. His most recent books include The Oxford Handbook of Grand Strategy (2021 co-ed., with Ron Krebs); Radicalization in Theory and Practice (Michigan University Press; co-éditeur avec Elyamine Settoul); Comparative Grand Strategy: A Framework and Cases (Oxford University Press, 2019 – co-ed. with Peter Dombrowski and Simon Reich) which was n°2 in the Annual reading list of the journal International Affairs in 2020, Théories de la sécurité (Presses de Sciences Po, 2016), The Routledge Handbook of Security Studies (2016, co-ed with M. Dunn Cavelty). His articles have been published in outlets such as Review of International Studies, Security Studies, Journal of Global Security Studies, European Journal of International Security, International Studies Review, Cooperation and Conflict, European Journal of International Relations, Security Dialogue, Polity, International Relations, and the Journal of Common Market Studies.

He is the co-convenor (with Simon Reich and Peter Dombrowski) of The Global Initiative on Comparative Grand Strategies (GICGS) and edits the Oxford Studies in Grand Strategy book series. He advised different institutions and organizations on security matters, including the EU Commission, the EU Parliament, and the Australian Department of Home Affairs.

Thierry Balzacq holds a PhD from the University of Cambridge and completed his postdoctoral studies at Harvard University. He sits on the editorial boards of Security Studies and Critical Studies on Security. Balzacq is an elected member of the Governing board of the European International Studies Association (EISA). He served on the editorial boards of International Political Sociology and The Hague Journal of Diplomacy.

He is the Director of Graduate Studies in Political Science at the School of Research and Scientific Advisor of the Master in International Governance and Diplomacy, at PSIA. He is member of the National Council for Universities (CNU), Section 4 (Political Science).