Speakers
Dr. Dimitrij Rupel
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Slovenia
Dr. Dimitrij Rupel is an important figure of the democratic Slovenia, having held the position of Minister of Foreign Affairs several times, as well as other key functions.
He was the first Foreign Affairs Minister of the independent Slovenia (1990-1993). In this capacity he made a major contribution to gaining international recognition for the new state. In the period from 1993 to 1995 he served as a deputy in the National Assembly.
At the end of 1994 in the first direct elections he was elected as Mayor of Ljubljana, capital city of the young state. He held this office until autumn 1997 when he became Slovenian Ambassador to the United States.
Mr. Rupel was re-appointed Foreign Affairs Minister in the Government of Janez Drnovšek at the beginning of 2000, a post he held until the Government was toppled in June 2000 to be replaced by the Government of Andrej Bajuk. With the appointment of the new Government on 30 November 2000, he was again appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs.
In the elections of 15 October 2000 he was elected in Piran as a National Assembly deputy, and served as foreign minister in the new Drnovšek (2000-2002) and Rop (2002-2004) Governments. With the confirmation of Janez Janša in December 2004, he again assumed the office of foreign affairs minister, and on 1 January 2005 he also became Chairman-in-Office of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe.
Dimitrij Rupel was born in Ljubljana on 7 April 1946. He received a degree in world literature and sociology in 1970 at the University of Ljubljana. In the course of his studies he spent one year (1966-67) at the University of Essex in Great Britain and from 1971 to 1972 he studied at Brandeis University (USA), where he received a PhD in sociology in 1976.
Throughout this time he was publishing literary works, journalistic and critical articles, and was also active as a translator and editor. Owing to the political difficulties he encountered while serving in the Yugoslav Army, he was not permitted to teach at the University of Ljubljana and could not advance his academic career. From 1977 to 1978 he taught at Queen's University in Canada; in 1985 at the New York New School for Social Research; and in 1989 at Cleveland State University.
In 1992, Dr Rupel was elected full professor at the University of Ljubljana. In recent years, he has published several texts in the field of international relations and foreign policy.