Knut Vollebæk (born 11 February 1946) is a Norwegian former diplomat and politician. A member of the

Christian Democratic Party __NOTOC__ Christian democratic parties are political parties that seek to apply Christian principles to public policy. The underlying Christian democracy movement emerged in 19th-century Europe, largely under the influence of Catholic social tea ...

, he served as ambassador to the United States from 2001 to 2007. He is currently a member of the

International Commission on Missing Persons The International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) is an intergovernmental organization that addresses the issue of persons missing as a result of armed conflicts, violations of human rights, and natural disasters. It is headquartered in The H ...

Board of Commissioners and heads a government commission investigating the situation of Norwegian Travellers.

Education

He was educated at the

Norwegian School of Economics The Norwegian School of Economics () or NHH is a business school situated in Bergen, Norway. It was founded in 1936 as Norway's first business school and is the leading teaching and research institution in Norway for the fields of management and ...

. He also attended the

University of Oslo The University of Oslo (; ) is a public university, public research university located in Oslo, Norway. It is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation#Europe, oldest university in Norway. Originally named the Royal Frederick Univ ...

and the

University of California, Santa Barbara The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Barbara County, California, United States. Tracing its roots back to 1891 as an ...

, as well as completing studies in the French language and culture at

Institut Catholique de Paris The Institut catholique de Paris (, abbr. ICP), known in English as the Catholic University of Paris (and in Latin as ''Universitas catholica Parisiensis''), is a private university located in Paris, France. History: 1875–present The Institut ...

and in the Spanish language and culture at the

Universidad Complutense The Complutense University of Madrid (, UCM; ) is a public research university located in Madrid. Founded in Alcalá in 1293 (before relocating to Madrid in 1836), it is one of the oldest operating universities in the world, and one of Spain's ...

of Madrid.

Career

In September 2013, he was elected to the Board of Commissioners of the

(ICMP). Vollebæk was the

OSCE The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) is a regional security-oriented intergovernmental organization comprising member states in Europe, North America, and Asia. Its mandate includes issues such as arms control, the pr ...

High Commissioner on National Minorities The office of the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities (HCNM) is charged with identifying and seeking early resolution of ethnic tension that might endanger peace, stability or friendly relations between and within the participating state ...

from 2007 until 2013. Prior to that, Vollebæk served as Ambassador to the United States between 2001 and 2007 and as

Foreign Minister In many countries, the ministry of foreign affairs (abbreviated as MFA or MOFA) is the highest government department exclusively or primarily responsible for the state's foreign policy and relations, diplomacy, bilateral, and multilateral r ...

of Norway from 1997 to 2000. He was chairman-in-Office of the

in 1999. Vollebæk's diplomatic career includes assignments to New Delhi,

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

and

Harare Harare ( ), formerly Salisbury, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Zimbabwe. The city proper has an area of , a population of 1,849,600 as of the 2022 Zimbabwe census, 2022 census and an estimated 2,487,209 people in its metrop ...

. He was Norwegian Ambassador to

Costa Rica Costa Rica, officially the Republic of Costa Rica, is a country in Central America. It borders Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the northeast, Panama to the southeast, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, as well as Maritime bo ...

in 1991–1993 and Assistant Secretary General at the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 1994 until he became Foreign Minister in 1997. He served as Deputy Co-Chairman of the International Conference on the Former Yugoslavia in 1993. He was appointed

primus inter pares is a Latin phrase meaning first among equals. It is typically used as an honorary title for someone who is formally equal to other members of their group but is accorded unofficial respect, traditionally owing to their seniority in office. H ...

of the Panel of Eminent Persons on Strengthening the Effectiveness of the

in 2005. He was Chairman of the

Council of the Baltic Sea States The Council of the Baltic Sea States (CBSS) is a regional intergovernmental organisation working on three priority areas: regional identity; regional safety and security; regional sustainability and prosperity. These three priority areas aim ...

in 1999–2000 and Chairman of the Barents Euro-Arctic Council in 1997–1998. Between October 1989 and November 1990, he was the Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs of Norway.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vollebaek, Knut Ambassadors of Norway to Costa Rica Ambassadors of Norway to the United States Christian Democratic Party (Norway) politicians Ministers of foreign affairs of Norway Norwegian School of Economics alumni Living people 1946 births University of California, Santa Barbara alumni Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe Grand Crosses 1st class of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Recipients of the Order of the White Star, 1st Class Politicians from Oslo