Antony Dabila

Antony Dabila holds a PhD in historical sociology of the political and is a specialist in international relations, strategic studies, and the contemporary transformations of democratic institutions in the context of geopolitical shifts. His academic background has led him to focus on the upheavals of the international system, marked by the return of armed conflicts, the rise of authoritarian regimes, and the growing fragility of Western democracies. His current research examines how these developments compel democratic states to rearm, both materially and institutionally, and explores the unprecedented tensions that arise between security imperatives and democratic
requirements.
Adopting a comparative approach, he analyzes the reconfiguration of the security- defense continuum as well as the transformations of state institutions and decision- making mechanisms, in response to the return of conventional warfare and the emergence of hybrid and digital threats. He investigates the risks of imbalance between institutional effectiveness and the protection of civil liberties, as well as the conditions under which institutions can adapt without undermining their democratic legitimacy.
Since June 2025, he has been an Associate Researcher at CEVIPOF (Sciences Po). He has taught at Université Toulouse-I Capitole, Sciences Po Lyon, University of São Paulo, and Université Jean Moulin Lyon 3, where he served as Scientific Director of the Institut d'Études de Stratégie et de Défense.

In September 2025, he published his first book, L'Échiquier stratégique : la grammaire de la guerre à travers les âges (Seuil), which explores the enduring logic and grammar of warfare across historical periods.

Antony Dabila joined the OMEGA Chair as a Research Fellow in June 2026 under the direction of Camille Mazé-Lambrechts, with the objective of strengthening its “Security and Defence” research agenda. Within this framework, his work examines the emerging challenges facing the French overseas territories in all their diversity, encompassing both environmental and climate-related risks as well as the activities of new actors whose capacity to influence political processes within overseas collectivities had previously remained limited.

His research seeks to understand how these new forms of interference affect the governance of the overseas territories and contribute to the reconfiguration of decision-making processes concerning them, at both the local and national levels.

Since September 2024, he has also co-led the Jean Baechler Fund for Comparative Historical Sociology, in collaboration with Alexandre Escudier and Nicolas Leron.