Jonas Gahr Støre

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Jonas Gahr Støre

Jonas Gahr Støre (born 25 August 1960) is the Norwegian Minister of Foreign Affairs. He was appointed to his current position in the second cabinet Stoltenberg on 17 October 2005.

Mr. Gahr Støre belongs to the Norwegian Labour Party. He attended Berg School in Oslo followed by naval officer training at the Royal Norwegian Naval Academy. He later studied political science at the Institut d'etudes politiques de Paris (best known as Sciences Po) in Paris, and enrolled at the London School of Economics as a PhD student.

He started his professional career as a teaching fellow in the Harvard Negotiation Project at Harvard Law School in 1986. This was followed by a position as researcher at the Norwegian School of Management (1986-89) and special adviser at the Office of the Prime Minister of Norway (1989-95). He was Director General for International Affairs at the Office of the Prime Minister of Norway 1995-98 followed by the position as ambassador at the Norwegian Delegation to the United Nations in Geneva.

His first major international position was as Executive Director (Chief of Staff) in the World Health Organization under the leadership of Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland. This was followed by a year as State Secretary and Chief of Staff for Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg (first Stoltenberg government, 2000-01). Before taking up the position as Foreign Minister he was Executive Chairman of the think tank Econ Analyse (2002-03) and Secretary General of the Norwegian Red Cross (2003-05).

Jonas Gahr Støre is married and has three children. His free time interests include cross-country skiing and freelance work as a literary critic.