SASG - Espen Barth Eide

Mr. Espen Barth Eide is the UN Secretary General’s Special Adviser on Cyprus, a position he has held since August 2014. He assists the parties in the conduct of full-fledged negotiations aimed at reaching a comprehensive settlement.

Biography

Between 2014 and 2016, Mr. Eide was Managing Director and Member of the Managing Board of the World Economic Forum in Geneva.

Mr. Eide was a member of the Norwegian government for 10 years. He served as Minister of Foreign Affairs (2012-2013), Minister of Defence (2011-2012), Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs (2000-2001 and 2010-2011) and Deputy Minister of Defence (2005-2010). In these positions, Mr. Eide was engaged in a range of Norwegian- supported peace and reconciliation efforts globally.

In his academic career as a political scientist, Mr. Eide was a Senior Researcher and Head of Department at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI) from 1993 to 2000 and from 2002 to 2005, specializing in peacekeeping, peacebuilding, regional and global security issues.

Since the early 1990s, Mr. Eide has been involved in a series of United Nations-initiated best practices and reform processes, including co-chairing the United Nations Executive Committee on Humanitarian Affairs (UN-ECHA) policy development study on integrated peace operations from 2005.  He has been closely involved with similar processes both in NATO and the European Union.

Mr. Eide is Vice Chair of the Board of the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue in Geneva. He is a Board Member of the Stockholm Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) in Stockholm and of the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI) in Oslo. He is also Senior Adviser to the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, DC.

Born in 1964, Mr. Eide is married and has three sons.