MSc Geopolitics, Security & Defense

On completion of this MSc, you will be able to anticipate crises, analyze power relations and advise public, military or international organizations on the threats of the 21st century.

The course is designed to enable you to acquire 6 major skills:

• Strategic analysis and military doctrine: master the theories of armed conflict and the major doctrines to decipher any crisis or war situation.
• Intelligence and security watch: collecting, processing and synthesizing strategic information in an uncertain environment (HUMINT, OSINT, cyber).
• Crisis management and operational planning: managing a coordinated response to a security crisis, in liaison with national and international institutions.
• Mastering hybrid threats: identifying and countering influence operations, disinformation and cyberattacks in the contemporary strategic field.
• International law and ethics: apply the legal frameworks of the law of armed conflict (IHL, R2P) and exercise your responsibilities with an assertive ethical stance.
• Defense expertise and consulting: formulating strategic recommendations for public decision-makers, defense industries and international organizations.

The “Expert en Relations et Coopérations Internationales – Option 2 : Sécurité Internationale & Politiques de Défense” qualification was registered with France Compétences in 2024 to meet the growing needs of the defense, intelligence and crisis management market. It is structured around 5 essential blocks:

Block 1 – Conduct a strategic and economic intelligence diagnosis on international issues

• Define a global approach to strategic and economic intelligence, taking into account all data (particularly societal and environmental) that may have an impact on the situation at hand, and establish a culture of strategic and economic intelligence within the organization or institution.
• Structure research, monitoring and data collection by determining the main areas of research, using the appropriate research tools (including AI), categorizing the data to be collected and the various sources to be exploited, and selecting the areas to be explored in greater depth.
• Secure data collection using the various techniques specific to the chosen data processing methodology, taking into account reference languages and complying with the RGPD.
• Analyze the content of all the data collected, as well as the digital flows from the various research tools used (including AI), in order to uncover new sources of development and identify opportunities, using diagnostic methods and models and ensuring the reliability of sources and methods (especially those derived from AI).
• Diagnose the situation in a country or region in order to identify the players present, the political decision-makers in civil society, and to specify the issues at stake by evaluating, on the one hand, current developments with regard to the country/sector and/or organization, and the public policies in place, and on the other hand, the international strategies of governmental and infra-governmental players, their objectives, their methods and the positions of multilateral players, and by placing facts and decision-making in their contexts.
• Mapping country risks by cross-referencing and cross-checking data and putting them into perspective with each other, with a view to proposing priority areas for action.
• Synthesize all data, prioritizing them according to their value and importance, in order to present the results of the watch in compliance with the rules specific to the expected mode of presentation and with detailed argumentation supporting the diagnosis made.
• Carry out a critical analysis in order to formulate recommendations that take all analyses into account, thereby facilitating decision-making and strengthening the activity of the organization or institution represented.

Assessment: Written report and oral role-playing exercise

Block 2 – Drawing up and implementing an international cooperation policy

• With a view to assisting the organization or institution represented in the implementation of an international cooperation policy, draw up a draft cooperation agreement, taking into account the needs and interests of the organization represented (State/international institutions) and its partners, and drafting a scoping note
• Organize international meetings, such as ministerial meetings, meetings with presidents of regional, metropolitan or city councils, interviews and site visits, as well as press releases, in order to help shape and implement an international cooperation project.
• Support the international development strategy of an international organization, an NGO or a company, by identifying the necessary players and analyzing their policies (including societal and environmental policies) and instruments to measure their effectiveness.
• Determine the most appropriate organization (technical office, representative office, subsidiary, etc.) and legal form for the development of an international organization, NGO or company, depending on the objectives to be achieved and the organization’s constraints.
• Organize project financing using a full range of tools (including bank financing, concessional financing, European and multilateral financing, development aid financing).
• Propose and coordinate the establishment of international partnerships in a variety of forms (including public-private partnerships) to strengthen the company’s position through financing adapted to the development project in question.

Evaluation: case study

Block 3 – Managing an international project

• In order to manage an international project operationally and get the company’s various departments on board, qualify the project according to the issues to which it relates and position it within the internal organization.
• In order to ensure that the project is carried out with the expected results and within the set deadlines, define the project schedule using technical monitoring tools and master the techniques of project management and international marketing.
• Mobilize a targeted network of stakeholders (actors and external partners), both national and international, according to their respective roles, skills and challenges for the international deployment of the project.
• Organize project management for each stage (design, negotiation, steering, team coordination, implementation and management, evaluation and dissemination), mobilizing multidisciplinary skills in a collaborative framework, taking into account cultural differences, societal and environmental issues, and the question of disability.
• Define modes of communication between multicultural teams with a view to uniting and motivating the players involved.
• Identify deviations from expected results by setting up an evaluation system for reporting to the relevant departments and proposing adjustments and corrective measures.
• With a view to defending the interests of an organization, institution and/or company and supporting its international development, propose lobbying actions based on an understanding of the company’s own institutional communications, and an analysis of the foreign policy of a State, regional/international institution, including the European Union.
• Understand the relationships of influence between different internal and external players, the mechanisms of influence (communication, lobbying, manipulation, destabilization, etc.) and the different levers available within an ethical and legal framework.

Evaluation: Professional setting with written report and oral defense

Block 4 – Providing advice and support in international crisis situations

• Analyze crises (including cyber-crises) in order to map their internal, regional and international consequences (including population displacement, famine, exactions against minorities or sexual violence), taking into account physical, cognitive and informational dimensions.
• With a view to anticipating crises, propose a policy and its legal tools based on the identification, in each situation and each zone, of the players, the destabilizing factors, the balancing and moderating forces, and the sources of public communication.
• Identify appropriate communication tools with a view to organizing, structuring and disseminating appropriate information to internal target players, external audiences and regulatory authorities.
• Draw up a corporate communications plan and a crisis communications plan based on an analysis of the media context, opinion trends and the potential risks to the organization/institution, in order to limit any distortion of the news and prevent the dissemination of information on social networks that could destabilize the public.
• Recommend a national and/or international crisis management plan, planning the continuity of the organization’s activities in order to guarantee its resilience.
• With a view to defining a crisis management policy within an economic or defense institution, a company or an international organization, formalize crisis management procedures in line with any national or international public crisis plans.
• Organize a crisis unit by mobilizing the right people and defining the responsibilities of each person, and even of other stakeholders, in support of crisis management, taking into account the issue of disability, with a view to implementing a crisis management policy within a company or institution.
• Coordinate the running of the crisis unit; training in procedures and their dissemination to all levels of the organization; the holding of decision-making meetings in crisis situations; and the use of various technical crisis management tools.
• Evaluate crisis responses in terms of tools, communication and coordination of human resources, with a view to proposing processes for improving and updating the crisis management scenarios of the organization represented.

Evaluation: Case study

Block 5 – International defense and security policy or cooperation advisor

• In order to promote a defense and security policy, particularly with a view to combating cybercrime and ensuring the protection of data and vital infrastructures, identify collective security mechanisms and modes of cooperation within international and regional organizations and alliances, as well as political and military mission, mediation and sanction instruments relevant to the organization represented.
• Advise the organization represented in information warfare to ensure the security of information systems and cyberspace, and link traditional strategic functions with the “sixth strategic function” (influence).
• Analyze geopolitical and geostrategic contexts, as well as the common/shared/projected stakes of the various players, with a view to contributing to the definition of a defense strategy, taking into account developments in strategic thinking and doctrine, particularly in the nuclear field.
• Propose political and military objectives and decision-making processes for a planned joint and/or combined operation, based on collective security mechanisms (NATO or European Union).
• Carry out a prospective study to propose a state or industrial strategy for the design, manufacture or acquisition of armaments or security tools
• Advise the structure represented in its choice of a technological/industrial strategy for defense or international security, taking into account the specific features of defense and security markets, the scope and challenges of the DTIB (Defense Technical and Industrial Base), and the specific features of the institutional/company-administration relationships of the main arms exporters.

Evaluation: Case study and written report

Full training is obtained by validating and capitalizing on the five skill blocks of the Title.

HEIP programs are designed by academic experts, intelligence professionals and senior officers, and are regularly updated to keep pace with developments in theaters of operation and contemporary threats. Choosing HEIP’s MSc in Geopolitics, Security & Defense means joining a program rooted in the reality of global crises, combining analytical rigor, legal mastery and capacity for action.

Our teaching methods are based on immersion in real-life situations: you’ll take part in operational simulations, war games and strategic planning exercises, as well as foresight workshops on conflict scenarios 2030-2050. Throughout the course, you will benefit from seminars and conferences with defense experts, diplomats and senior officers, to

compare your analyses with those of the players shaping global security balances.

To guarantee your employability in a highly selective sector, the course includes the resolution of real commissioned cases and collective interdisciplinary projects on field issues, complemented by solid professional experience: a 5-month internship in M1 and a 6-month internship or work-study program in M2 within a ministry, an international organization (NATO, UN) or a specialized think tank.

Because we train experts who are called upon to advise decision-makers in complex environments, the evaluation of this MSc goes far beyond the classic academic exams. Each test places you in real-life operational conditions.

Validation of the diploma is based on three types of test:

• Analysis in real-life conditions: solving case studies and role-playing exercises reproducing strategic crisis scenarios.
• Written expertise: drafting of strategic dossiers, commissioned reports and a final dissertation.
• Oral presentation: because the intelligence, defense and strategic consulting professions require the ability to brief decision-makers under pressure, oral presentations assess your ability to argue your analytical choices in front of a panel of experts.

This pace is ideal if you want to devote yourself fully to your studies while gaining experience in defense and security organizations or international institutions in France or abroad.

• The pace: You follow your courses at the school intensively for 6 months.
• Professional experience: To validate your year, you must complete an internship of at least 110 days per year – 5 months in M1, 6 months in M2 – with a defense organization or company, a government ministry or a think tank.
• Financing: Tuition costs €10,350 per year. You are responsible for your own financing (student loans, private grants, family aid or internship bonuses).

This pace is ideal if you want to enter the defense and security market immediately, while building up long-term experience within a recognized structure.

• The pace: You sign a 2-year work-study contract, with 2 weeks on the job and 1 week of classes.
• Professional experience: a minimum of 110 days’ work experience per year, with assignments of increasing responsibility over one or two full years.
• Financing and remuneration: The tuition fees of €10,950 per year are fully covered by your company and/or the OPCO – no remaining costs for the student. You will also receive a monthly salary based on a percentage of the minimum wage.