Jonas Gahr Støre

Jonas Gahr Støre
Minister of Foreign Affairs
In office 17 October 2005 – 21 September 2012
Monarch	Harald V
Prime Minister	Jens Stoltenberg
Preceded by	Jan Petersen
Succeeded by	Espen Barth Eide
Minister of Health and Care services
Incumbent
Assumed office 21 September 2012
Monarch	Harald V
Prime Minister	Jens Stoltenberg
Preceded by	Anne-Grete Strøm-Erichsen
Personal details
Born	(1960-08-25) 25 August 1960 Oslo, Norway
Nationality	Norwegian
Political party	Norwegian Labour Party
Relations	Marit Slagsvold
Children	Three
Residence	Oslo, Norway
Alma mater	Paris Institute of Political Studies, Royal Norwegian Naval Academy
Occupation	Elected MP in the Storting 2009 -
Religion	Lutheranism[1][2][3]
Website	Government page

Jonas Gahr Støre (born 25 August 1960) is a Norwegian politician representing the Labour Party and since October 2013 First deputy chair of the Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs in the Parliament of Norway.

Støre studied political science at Institut d'Études Politiques de Paris from 1981 to 1985. He worked for Gro Harlem Brundtland as adviser and later director general at the Prime Minister's Office from 1989 to 1997. He was Executive director at the World Health Organization from 1998 to 2000 and Secretary General of the Norwegian Red Cross from 2003 to 2005.^[4]

He served as Minister of Foreign Affairs in Stoltenberg's Second Cabinet from 17 October 2005 to 21 September 2012 when he took over the position of Minister of Health and Care Services, a position he held to the cabinet resigned in October 2013 following a loss for the Red-Green coalition in the 2013 parliamentary election.^[4]

Early life and education

Born in Oslo, Jonas Gahr Støre is the son of shipping magnate Ulf Jonas Støre (1925-) and librarian Unni Gahr (1931-).^[5] He attended Berg School in Oslo, then underwent naval officer training at the Royal Norwegian Naval Academy. He later studied political science for five years at the Sciences Po in Paris.^[6] He enrolled as a PhD student at the London School of Economics but withdrew after a few weeks.^{[citation needed]}

Støre 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 a researcher at the Norwegian School of Management from 1986 to 1989.

Career in politics, public administration and organizations

He was previously affiliated with the Conservative Party (Bokmål: Høyre) having applied for a position as political advisor on foreign affairs for Høyre.^[7] He was offered the job but subsequently turned it down. ^[7] In 1989, Støre became special adviser in the Prime Minister's office (spesialrådgiver på Statsministerens kontor) of Gro Harlem Brundtland. He eventually became her "right hand"^[7] He formally became a member of the Labour Party in 1995.

He later became an ambassador in the Norwegian Delegation to the United Nations Office at Geneva. His first major international position was as Executive Director (Chief of Staff) in the World Health Organization under the leadership of Gro Harlem Brundtland.

He was Executive Chairman of the think tank ECON Analyse from 2002 to 2003 and Secretary General of the Norwegian Red Cross from 2003 to 2005.

In 2005, Støre was appointed foreign minister in Jens Stoltenberg's government. Numerous polls showed that Støre was the most popular member of the contemporaneous government, although political scientist Frank Aarebrot has said that it is not difficult for foreign ministers to win popularity surveys.^[8] In the 2009 general election in Norway, Støre was elected to the Norwegian parliament, Stortinget, and represented Oslo.

Støre has widely been considered as a potential future prime minister,^[9][10]however, following a conflict of interest incident in the second quarter of 2012, a number of trade union leaders opined that Støre's chances of succeeding Jens Stoltenberg were significantly weakened due to the revelations of his close relationship with Felix Tschudi and possible conflict-of-interest issues in the foreign ministry's decision to grant money to a foundation in which Tschudi had significant interests. Trade unions play a significant role in the decision-making processes of the Labour Party, including the selection of leadership candidates. Information emerged in this period that Støre's family company, of which he owns a 25% share, had ownership positions in three LNG carriers, were given as reason for his declining support, the rationale was that this would nominally make Støre a shipping magnate (Norwegian: skipsreder), a dominant vocation among Norway's wealthy upper class.^[11] In her 2013 book Grete Knudsen (a former minister of commerce) voiced her support for Trond Giske as the next leader of the party.^[12]

Conflict-of-interest accusations

In 2007, Støre intervened in a case in which Tschudi's company had been refused permits to transfer oil. Following the intervention, the Ministry of the Environment reversed its position.^[13]

Alleged breach of sanctions against Iran

On 20 April 2012, media reported that a ship that was part-owned by Støre, had on two occasions in 2011 transported gas from an Iranian port that had been black-listed by the United States.^[14]

Appointment of Tore Eriksen

In August 2012 the newspaper Verdens Gang reported that Jonas Gahr Støre had appointed his former colleague and alleged friend Tore Eriksen, a top bureaucrat, to a very lucrative job without publicly announcing the vacancy beforehand.^[15][16] Eriksen along with his wife earned more than NOK 2.5 million in salary from the Norwegian government, which was said to be significantly higher than any other civil servant in public service and 50 percent higher than his predecessor. Additionally Eriksen received a NOK 500.000 tax-free increase due to him living abroad and a NOK 132.000 "spousal increase" due to him living with his wife.^[17] Analysts called it "special treatment" due to "close relationships" between the political elite.^[18] Labour union leader Anders Folkestad denounced Gahr Støre in the wake of the matter, as did the opposition Progress Party.^[19]

Hotel Serena attack

On 14 January 2008, a suicide bomber struck the Serena Hotel in Kabul, Afghanistan, where Støre was staying.^[20] Støre was unhurt in the incident, which killed six people including Norwegian journalist Carsten Thomassen.^[21] United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon stated that Støre was the target of the attack,^[22] but this claim was rejected by a Taliban spokesperson.^[23] Støre canceled the rest of his visit to Afghanistan the day after the attack.^[24]

2011 Norway attacks

Anders Behring Breivik, the perpetrator of the 2011 Norway attacks, stated that Støre was one of his main targets.^[25]

Personal life

He is married with three sons.^[26] One of his sons Vetle (born 1993), studied at Oslo Commerce School.^[27]

Støre is a multi-millionaire, with a fortune of around NOK 40 million (approx. US$6,800,000 in 2008).^[28][29][30] He owns 25% of the family-owned company Trestø and part of Femstø, another company owned by the Støre family. Trestø has a 5% share in the company Clipper Skagen DA and a 1% share in Clipper Viking DA. Both companies are run by Solvang ASA and own three LNG carriers, Clipper Harald, Clipper Viking and Clipper Skagen.^[31]

References

External links

• "Jonas Gahr Støre" (in Norwegian). Stortinget.no. 

• Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs
• Jonas Gahr Støre: In defense of dialogue TED-talk