Contact:

Lauren Sucher

+1-202-429-3822
lsucher@usip.org

(Washington) -- Ambassador Jan Eliasson will be joining the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) as a Senior Visiting Scholar on March 18, 2009. He will participate in several Institute events, including a seminar on mediation and be a keynote speaker at a new U.S.-U.N. forum initiated by the Institute’s Center for Conflict Prevention. During his stay at USIP, Ambassador Eliasson will focus on how to strengthen transatlantic relations in the face of growing global challenges.

Until July 1, 2008, Ambassador Jan Eliasson was Special Envoy of the United Nations Secretary-General for Darfur. He was also President of the 60th session of the United Nations General Assembly. From 2000-2005, Jan Eliasson was Sweden’s Ambassador to the United States.

During 1992-1994, he took part in operations in Somalia, Sudan, Mozambique and the Balkans, as the first United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs.

From 1988-1992, he was Sweden’s Ambassador to the United Nations in New York. During this period, he also served as the Secretary-General’s Personal Representative for Iran and Iraq. In addition, Mr. Eliasson was part of the UN mediation missions in the Iraq-Iraq War from 1980-1986 and served as mediator in the Nagorno Karabakh conflict for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

Mr. Eliasson was Minister for Foreign Affairs of Sweden in 2006, and from 1994 to 2000 State Secretary for Foreign Affairs, a key position in formulating and implementing Swedish foreign policy.

Mr. Eliasson has been Visiting Professor at Uppsala and Göteborg Universities in Sweden, has authored and co-authored numerous articles and books, and is a frequent lecturer on foreign policy and diplomacy. He graduated from the Swedish Naval Academy and earned a Master’s degree in Economics and Business Administration.