Jirí Šedivý

Jiri Šedivý currently serves as the First Deputy Minister of Defence of the Czech Republic. His previous post was at NATO headquarters, where he joined the NATO International Staff as Assistant Secretary General for Defence Policy and Planning in 2007. Prior to his appointment, he served the Czech Republic as Deputy Minister for European Affairs, and as Minister of Defence, in 2006. As Assistant Secretary General at NATO, Šedivý was the principal adviser to the Secretary General on political-military policy and planning issues. In addition, Šedivý has a distinguished academic record—from 2004 to 2006 he was Professor of Security Studies at the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies, lecturing on such topics as defence sector transformation, civil-military relations and national strategy making. Between 1999 and 2004, he was the Director of the Institute of International Relations in Prague, Assistant Professor of International Relations at Charles University, Prague, and Professor of European Security at New York University’s Prague Centre. As an expert, he played an important role in the Czech Republic’s accession to NATO and served as external adviser to President Václav Havel. Šedivý has been a member of a number of international expert teams and task forces preparing policy recommendations and security analyses, including NATO, the EU and the US government.