Christoph Heusgen

Ambassador Christoph Heusgen was Permanent Representative of Germany to the United Nations between 2017 and 2021. Prior to this appointment and since 2005, Heusgen was the Foreign Policy and Security Adviser to his country’s Federal Chancellor, Angela Merkel. He served as Director and Head of the Policy Unit for High Representative Javier Solana in the General Secretariat of the Council of the European Union from 1999 to 2005.

Between 1988 and 1999, Heusgen served in various capacities at the Foreign Office in Bonn, including Deputy Director-General for European Affairs from 1997 to 1999; member of Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel’s Private Office in charge of European Affairs from 1993 to 1997, serving as Deputy Head since 1994.  From 1990 and 1992, he was Deputy Head of
the special section in charge of negotiations on the Treaty of Maastricht.  He held the position of Private Secretary to the Coordinator for German-French Relations from 1988 to 1990.

From 1986 to 1988, Heusgen worked in Germany’s Paris Embassy, having begun his foreign service career in the Press and Economic Affairs Office of his country’s Consulate in Chicago, where he worked from 1983 to 1986.  He joined the Foreign Service in 1980. Heusgen is a graduate of the University of Saint Gallen in Switzerland and studied at Georgia Southern College in the United States. He earned a post-graduate degree from the University of Saint Gallen where he is currently teaching Political Science. Heusgen is the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Munich Security Conference Foundation.

Photo Credit:MSC/Kuhlmann