Captain Jérôme Chardon

Captain Jérôme Chardon is an active-duty French Navy officer, Defense Attaché in Japan since August 2022. His career has been balanced between embarked, staff, intelligence and diplomatic postings. He acquired his first operational experience between 1998 and 2003, in the Indian Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea and off the western coast of Africa. He then completed a degree in Chinese at the French Eastern Languages and Civilizations National Institute (2003-2006, Paris). In addition to various postings in Paris focused on strategic and military analysis related to the Indopacific region, including Head of Asia-Pacific Bureau at the Directorate General for International Relations and Strategy from 2014 to 2018, he was appointed Naval Attaché in China and Non Resident Defence Attaché for Cambodia from 2008 to 2011. Most recently, he assumed responsibility as Head Planner within the French Navy operations headquarters and Senior Investigations Analyst at the Armed forces General Inspection.
Besides, Captain Chardon has developed an expertise in the field of environmental security and used to teach through this lens at the Paris-Dauphine University from 2018 to 2023.
Captain Chardon graduated from the French Naval Academy (1995-1998, Lanvéoc-Poulmic), the U.S. Naval Command College (2013-2014, Newport – Rhode Island), the French National Defense Advanced Studies Institute “Maritime issues and strategies” course (2019-2020, Paris) and the National Institute for Defense Studies of Japan (2021-2022, Tokyo). He was awarded a senior military studies degree from the French War College (21st class, 2014 – Paris).
He was distinguished Knight of the Légion d’honneur and Knight of the National Order of Merit and received various decorations: National Defence Gold Medal, French Commemorative Medal (for Afghanistan) and Nation’s Gratitude Medal (for Afghanistan).