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Jan Eliasson, former Swedish ambassador to the United States, presented the third Manatt-Phelps Lecture in Political Science on October 26, 2004. He spoke on the European Union and the global economy in the Sun Room, Memorial Union.

Jan Eliasson
Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations
Former Swedish ambassador to the United States

Jan Eliasson is a Swedish diplomat who has been Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations since 1 July 2012. A member of the Swedish Social Democratic Party, Eliasson served as Minister for Foreign Affairs from 24 April to 6 October 2006. Eliasson was named U.S. ambassador in 2000. He previously served six years as the Swedish deputy secretary of state, setting and implementing Swedish foreign policy.

From 1988 to 1992, he was Sweden’s ambassador to the United Nations in New York City. While at the United Nations, Eliasson served as the secretary general’s personal representative on Iran/Iraq. In 1991, he was named chairman of the General Assembly’s working group on emergency relief. In 1992, he was appointed the first U.N.’s under secretary general for humanitarian affairs, overseeing operations in Somalia, Sudan, Mozambique and the Balkans.

As a diplomat, Eliasson has served in Paris, Bonn, Washington and Zimbabwe. In Zimbabwe, he opened the first Swedish Embassy in 1980.