About eAcademy – DEEP Portal

If you think that education is too expensive, try ignorance
Derek Bok, president of Harvard University, 1974

Our Patron

Jean d’Andurain served as an officer in the French Army until 2005. He graduated from the Military Academy Saint Cyr in 1978 and Staff College in 1990. He served in various cavalry regiments, was assigned to the Army Staff, the French–German Brigade and NATO. He deployed to Sarajevo in the UNHCR in 1994 and SFOR in 1996. He was then assigned to the International Relations Department at Joint Staff Paris. He joined the International Military Staff, Cooperation & Regional Security Division in 2001, and became head of Partnership Staff Element branch, International Military Staff, NATO HQs, Brussels. Since 1 January 2005, Jean d’Andurain was the desk officer for Defence Education Programmes at International Staff, Political Affairs & Security Policy , Euro-Atlantic & Partnership Directorate, NATO HQs, Brussels, Belgium. His duties included responsibility for Education for Reform Initiative (EfR) and Defence Education Enhancement Programmes (DEEP). This covered relations with NATO and partner defence education institutions, including Partnership Training and Education Centres and PfP Consortium of Defence Academies and Security Studies Institutes. He coordinated programs on defence education aspects of NATO cooperation plans with partners, which that date included Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Mauritania, the Republic of Moldova, Mongolia, Serbia, Uzbekistan, and Ukraine.

Inspired by his direct work environment, he was intensely dedicated to bringing defence education to life in and outside NATO. Jean is one of the founding fathers of NATO’s Defence Education Enhancement Programme (DEEP) together with the PfP Consortium. His vision was clear: through DEEP, everybody is a winner.

nations gain visibility;
institutions gain credibility;
academic experts gain real-world experience of working with another country;
the world gains more stability through intellectual interoperability.

“One day a West German officer visited me in my office of the French Liaison officer in Munsterlager. He said: “you know, Jean, your German is not academic, but when we discuss tactics, operations and strategy, we understand each other perfectly, as all Allies do. But when I talk to my fellow officer from Dresden, even if his German is perfect, I can’t understand his way of thinking”.

In 2018 Jean d’Andurain passed away quietly following a stroke he had suffered during a NATO mission over a year earlier. Jean’s funeral was held at the Church of Saint-Jacques in Locquirec, in Brittany, France. As it finished, the morning drizzle gave way to beautiful sunshine so that the over 200 congregants could walk to the nearby cemetery where Jean was laid to rest. His time on this earth was too short to accomplish what he thought was needed. It is perhaps fitting then, that being the shooting star he was, he left us on the weekend of the Perseid meteor showers. Jean did what he believed in, what he loved, with people with whom he was not always in agreement, but whom he always respected. His invaluable work will be carried onwards in his name and memory by his colleagues and friends. Notre cher Jean, ce n’est qu’un au revoir.