Catherine Fieschi

Catherine Fieschi is a visiting scholar at Carnegie Europe. She is a leading European politics expert and global analyst whose main focus is on the rise of populist and authoritarian politics in advanced democracies. A former academic, she is a longstanding adviser to progressive political leaders and campaigns across the globe.

A visiting fellow at the Robert Schuman Centre of the European University Institute in Florence, Catherine is also a senior advisor to the geo-political advisory firm, Macro Advisory Partners. Recently she was invited to join the OECD’s Expert Group on Strategic Foresight, and as of 2026 she is the director of The ORA Project, an AI-based firm designed to counter far-right messaging in key strategic contexts.

Catherine joined the policy world from academia, first as the director of the London-based think tank Demos; She then became head of research at the British Council, and finally founded and directed Counterpoint, a think tank focused on the social and cultural drivers of political risk.

A regular political and social commentator in multiple languages, Catherine is a columnist for the French weekly magazine L’Express and is widely published in academia and beyond. Her last book, Populocracy, was published by Agenda in 2019; Her forthcoming book (2027) is on women and the far right.

Catherine holds a PhD in Comparative Politics from McGill University in Canada. She grew up in France, Italy, and the United States—and, after 30 years in the UK, now lives in Paris.