Jaap de Hoop Scheffer

Jaap de Hoop Scheffer in May 2005 at the 35th St. Gallen Symposium

Jakob Gijsbert (Jaap) de Hoop Scheffer (born April 3, 1948 in Amsterdam ) is a Dutch politician . He was NATO Secretary General from 2004 to July 2009 .

Life

Jaap de Hoop Scheffer studied law at the University of Leiden . After his studies he did his military service with the Koninklijke Luchtmacht , in the end as a reserve officer . Scheffer then worked for the Dutch Foreign Office from 1976 to 1986, where he was stationed at the Dutch embassy in Ghana for the first two years . Scheffer then moved to the NATO headquarters in Brussels as a member of the Dutch delegation until 1980 .

In 1982 Scheffer, who until then had belonged to Democrats 66 , became a member of the Christian Democratisch Appèl , for whom he moved in 1986 as spokesman for foreign affairs in the Second Chamber of the States General . Between 1997 and 2001 Scheffer was opposition leader in the Second Chamber and took over the party leadership. From July 22, 2002 to December 3, 2003 he was Foreign Minister ( Minister van Buitenlandse Zaken ) of the CDA-led government.

On January 5, 2004, De Hoop Scheffer took up the post of NATO Secretary General, which had been assigned to him from January 1, 2004. In his inaugural address, he saw the future main tasks of the alliance in cooperation with the European Union and in securing peace in Afghanistan . He was replaced on August 1, 2009 by former Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen as Secretary General of the Defense Alliance.

Since September 2009 he has held the Kooijmans Chair for Peace, Law and Security at the University of Leiden, named after Pieter Kooijmans .

De Hoop Scheffer has excellent knowledge of German .

Awards

• Grand Cross (2009), Officer (2003), Knight (2002) of the Order of Orange-Nassau
• Grand Cross of the Order of the Redeemer
• Grand Officer of the Three Star Order (2004)
• Grand Cross of the Star of Romania (2004)
• Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Hungary (2009)
• Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic (2009)
• Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland (2009)
• Order of the White Double Cross 1st Class (2009)
• Order of the Marienland Cross 1st Class (2009)
• Knight Commander des Order of St. Michael and St. George (2010)

See also

• List of permanent representatives of the Netherlands to NATO

Web links

Commons : Jaap de Hoop Scheffer  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Prof. Dr. JG (Jaap) de Hoop Scheffer , Parlement & Politiek
• Literature by and about Jaap de Hoop Scheffer in the catalog of the German National Library