Jacques Rupnik was born in Prague in 1950, educated at the University of Paris and at Harvard, is currently Research Professor at CERI-Sciences Po in Paris and visiting professor at the College of Europe in Bruges.
He holds degrees in history from the University of Paris I-Sorbonne and politics from Sciences Po, a Master’s in Soviet Studies from Harvard University (1974) and a Ph.D. in history from the University of Paris I - Sorbonne (1978).
Former research associate at the Russian Research Center, Harvard University (1974-1975), Eastern Europe analyst for the BBC World Service from 1977 to 1982 he has been based in Paris since he joined CERI, Sciences Po at the end of 1982. Executive director of the International Commission for the Balkans, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (1995-1996) and drafter of its report Unfinished Peace (Carnegie, 1996) member of the Independent International Commission on Kosovo (1999-2000) and co-drafter of The Kosovo Report (Oxford UP, 2000); Co-editor of the journal Transeuropéennes (1992-2003). Member of the editorial board of East European Politics and Society (ACLS) since 2009.

J.Rupnik has been an advisor to the President of the Czech Republic, Vaclav Havel (1990-1992) and continued to work with him after that. He is a member of the board of the Vaclav Havel presidential library in Prague. Among the various positions held: advisor to the European Commission 2007 - 2013. Member of the scientific council of the Prague Institute of International Relations (2007-2017). Member of the board of the Institute for Historical Justice and Reconciliation in The Hague (2010-2017). Member of the board of directors of the European Partnership for Democracy in Brussels (2008-2013). Member of the Research Council of the International Forum for Democracy Studies in Washington (since 2013). He has been a visiting Professor in several European universities and in the Department of Government, (2006) at Harvard University where he was Senior Fellow at the Davis Center (2008) and at the Center for European Studies (2011, 2016).

J.Rupnik has published a number of books and scholarly articles including The Other Europe (London, 1989, translated in a dozen of languages and a companion volume to a six hour documentary film on postwar Eastern Europe for British television). His publications include Histoire du Parti communiste tchécoslovaque (1981), Le Nouveau Continent (with D.Moisi, 1991), L’Europe des Vingt-Cinq (with Ch.Lequesne, 2004) and edited volumes such as Totalitarismes (1984), Czech and Slovak Roads to the European Union (2003), International Perspectives on the Balkans (2003), Les Banlieues de l’Europe, les politiques de voisinage de l’UE (2007), The Western Balkans and the EU: ‘the hour of Europe’, Paris, EUISS (2011), 1989 as a Political World Event: Democracy, Europe and the new international system in the age of globalization, with an introduction by Vaclav Havel, London, Routledge, (2013), Géopolitique de la démocratisation, l’Europe et ses voisinages, Presses de Sciences Po (2014), Stredni Evropa je jako ptak s ocima vzadu (Central Europe is like a bird with eyes in its back), Prague, Novela Bohemica, 2018.