November 18,
2004
Ambassador Robert H. Serry
Deputy Assistant Secretary General for Crisis Management and
Operations,
NATO Headquarters, Brussels, Belgium
Ambassador Robert H. Serry is the Deputy Assistant
Secretary General for Crisis Management and Operations at
NATO Headquarters in Brussels. His main
responsibilities are to manage NATO’s Crisis Response
Operations, from current commitments in the Balkans (KFOR
and SFOR) and in Afghanistan (ISAF), to preparing new
operations elsewhere, if so decided by the North Atlantic
Council. In chairing both the Balkans and Afghanistan Task
Forces, he coordinates the civil/political and military
aspects of NATO’s operations. He frequently travels to
countries in crisis areas and keeps close contacts with the
United Nations, the European Union and other International
Organisations in relation to NATO’s crisis management
activities. He has been closely involved for example in the
peace process in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia,
notably by conducting the dialogue with the leadership of
the former National Liberation Army on the amnesty and other
issues.
His previous professional experience included several
diplomatic postings at Bangkok, Moscow, New York (United
Nations) and Kiev (first Netherlands Ambassador to
independent Ukraine), and leading the Middle Eastern Affairs
Division at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in The Hague. In
his latter capacity he was actively involved in the
promotion of a ‘back channel’ dialogue between Israel and
the Palestinians. In the framework of the Netherlands
European Community presidency, he participated in the events
leading to the Middle East Peace Conference at Madrid
(November 1991).
Robert Serry was born in 1950 at Calcutta, is married and
has three children. He graduated in Political Science (cum
laude) at the University of Amsterdam. His publications
include one book on Ukraine’s independence, published in two
languages, and several articles on political and
peacekeeping topics ranging from the Middle East to the
Balkans and Eastern Europe.
