Arnault Barichella

Arnault Barichella has been an associate researcher at the Jacques Delors Institute since September 2021, specializing in cybersecurity, digital technologies and artificial intelligence.

He has published several papers for the Institute on these dynamic subjects: the AI revolution by 2035 or how to keep humans in the loop by regulating and defining limits to maintain control; obstacles and prospects for regulating AI at the EU level; European cybersecurity and data privacy; and the cybersecurity dimension of the war in Ukraine. Arnault has presented his research on these topics to policy makers and leading experts at a number of conferences. Highlights include the International Forum on Cybersecurity (2021), the Enedis Forum on Innovation (2022), as well as the Cercle de France Business Session Mastercard (2025). Other more recent interventions include at the Permanent Representation of the European Commission in France (2025), the European Digital Health Summit in Madrid (2025), along with the Digital Innovation Summit in Bucharest (2026).

Arnault is a postdoctoral researcher in the social sciences at University Paris-Saclay, with a PhD in Political Science from Sciences Po Paris. He obtained his Masters’ in European Affairs from Sciences Po Paris, and received a BA in Modern History from Oxford University. Arnault was a Visiting Fellow at Harvard in 2018-19, affiliated with the Department of Government.

His PhD dissertation on the role and importance of smart cities was published in 2023 by Palgrave Macmillan. Arnault was selected by Palgrave to be editor-in-chief for the Palgrave Handbook of Cybersecurity, Technologies and Energy Transitions. The Handbook, first of its kind on these topics, collects research, thinking and practice that capture the complex interconnections between the twin digital and energy transitions. This Handbook served as a springboard for the launching of a new academic book series with Palgrave Macmillan in 2026, focusing on the twin transitions.