Rolf Ekéus

Rolf Ekéus built much of his diplomatic career around arms control. After postings including Bonn, Nairobi, New York, and The Hague, he represented Sweden at the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva and chaired its Chemical Weapons Convention negotiations in the 1980s. He also headed the Swedish delegation to the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe and contributed to the 1990 Charter of Paris. ¹

From 1991 to 1997 Ekéus led the United Nations Special Commission on Iraq, UNSCOM. Established after the Gulf War, the commission inspected Iraq's chemical and biological weapons and prohibited missiles, supervised destruction, and developed monitoring arrangements intended to prevent renewed production. It also assisted the International Atomic Energy Agency on nuclear questions. Ekéus repeatedly negotiated with Iraq over access and compliance. ^{1, 2}

After serving as Sweden's ambassador in Washington, Ekéus became the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities in 2001. He also produced inquiries for the Swedish government into Cold War security policy and the handling of foreign submarine intrusions. ¹