Professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...

Gerrit Olivier is a South African academic and diplomat. He joined the apartheid diplomatic corp in 1983 and became the director of the communication and planning division. In 1991, he became the first diplomatic representative of apartheid South Africa to the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

and in 1992 he was appointed as the first South African

Ambassador An ambassador is an official envoy, especially a high-ranking diplomat who represents a state and is usually accredited to another sovereign state or to an international organization as the resident representative of their own government or so ...

to the

Russian Federation Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

and

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a landlocked country primarily in Central Asia, with a European Kazakhstan, small portion in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the Kazakhstan–Russia border, north and west, China to th ...

. He is currently Extraordinary Professor in the Dept of Political Sciences, University of Pretoria.

Life

Olivier gained his doctorate from the

University of Pretoria The University of Pretoria (, ) is a multi-campus public university, public research university in Pretoria, the administrative and ''de facto'' capital of South Africa. The university was established in 1908 as the Pretoria campus of the Johan ...

in the discipline of international politics. He subsequently became senior lecturer in political science at the

University of Zululand The University of Zululand or UNIZULU is a comprehensive tertiary educational institution north of the uThukela River in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The university has established partnerships with schools in the United States and Europe suc ...

before being appointed to the chair of International Politics at Pretoria.Gerrit Olivier.aspx Gerrit Olivier
/ref> In 1983, he left academia to enter the diplomatic service of the apartheid government. During that time he campaigned against the sanctions that had been imposed on apartheid South Africa and was considered close to the apartheid regime. Prior to this he had defended South Africa's apartheid government in his academic work. In 1991 he became apartheid South Africa's first diplomat on mission to the

and was first Ambassador to the

, also representing South Africa in

. In 1996 Olivier returned to his academic career and was appointed as director of the Centre for European Studies at what was then the Rand Afrikaans University. He was a founding member, and later president, for 8 years, of the South African Political Science Association, and first editor of ''Politikon'' – a journal in political science. He remains an active member of the committees of several institutions, including the Pretoria Branch of the

South African Institute of International Affairs The South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA) is an independent public policy and foreign relations think tank based in Johannesburg, South Africa. Founded in 1934 in Cape Town, the institute has been located on the campus of the ...

, the South African Business Chamber, the

Broadcasting Complaints Commission of South Africa The Broadcasting Complaints Commission of South Africa (BCCSA) is a complaints authority established by the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) to enforce a Code of Conduct for television and radio Radio is the technology of communica ...

and commissioner on the Afrikaanse Taalmuseum Council. He is Professor Extraordinaire in the Department of

Political Sciences Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and ...

at the

. He remains involved in the study of Russian foreign and security policy and SA/Africa/Russian relations and is the founder and Chairman of the South African/Russian Dialogue Forum (SARDF). He wrote various books, chapters in books and articles on

international relations International relations (IR, and also referred to as international studies, international politics, or international affairs) is an academic discipline. In a broader sense, the study of IR, in addition to multilateral relations, concerns al ...

, as well as op-ed articles for South African Newspapers, also commenting on radio and television on current events. In 2013, Prof Oliver was awarded the Stals Award for political science from the "Suid-Afrikaanse Akademie vir Wetenskap en Kuns".

References

External links

Mercury partners

Business Day article
{{DEFAULTSORT:Olivier, Gerrit Ambassadors of South Africa to Russia Ambassadors of South Africa to the Soviet Union Ambassadors of South Africa to Kazakhstan Living people University of Pretoria alumni Academic staff of the University of Pretoria Year of birth missing (living people)