Gunther Neumann – Biography

Education

Gunther Neumann studied History, Cultural Anthropology, Latin American Literature, Law and Economics, and holds a post-graduate degree in International Relations and International Law from the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna; he has done an exchange program at the École Nationale d’Administration in Paris, and has completed extended advanced vocational training and seminars on international politics, international relations, conflict resolution and mediation, and international humanitarian law & security (US-IP, Wilton Park, ICRC, OSCE, UN, Salzburg Global Seminar, and other).

Professional Experience

Gunther Neumann has more than 30 years of international experience in the field of diplomacy, negotiations, democracy, mediation, development and human rights, mostly in executive positions with the OSCE, the European Union, the United Nations as well as with NGOs.

He has worked and continues to work in conflict and post-conflict areas of sub-saharan Africa, Central-, South & South-East Asia, Central & South America and Europe, for the EU, the Intl. Red Cross, OSCE, UN missions and NGOs, with vast experience in development, negotiations, facilitation, mediation.

Since 2011, he is Vice President of the Herbert C. Kelman Institute for Interactive Conflict Transformation (HKI) https://www.kelmaninstitute.org/the-kelman-board/

Furthermore, he works in democracy and election observation missions with the EU and the OSCE in the Caucasus, Asia, Africa and Latin America, ia. in Albania, Armenia, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Georgia, Guinea Bissau, Guatemala, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Peru, Sri Lanka, Ukraine or Venezuela.

In 2010, he has been nominated by the Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the “Standby Team of Mediation Experts” of the UN Department of Political Affairs for 2011

From 2008 – 2011, as Vice President of the IICP (Institute for Integrative Conflict Transformation and Peacebuilding), he has participated in various missions, in particular to South East Asia

From 1998 – 2005, in the position of OSCE Deputy Director, and Head of Conference Services and Protocol of the OSCE http://www.osce.org), he served i.a. as secretary to the rotating chairmanships of the OSCE, ia. to the respective Chairpersons at numerous meetings at the level of Foreign Ministers and Heads of State.

For five years (2000 – 2005), he was also Executive Secretary of the JCG-CFE (Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe, (http://www.fas.org/nuke/control/cfe/, http://www.armscontrol.org/factsheet/cfe, http://www.osce.org/jcg,), and of the OSCC (Open Skies Consultative Commission), the implementing body for the Open Skies Treaty (http://www.osce.org/oscc)

Previously, he has worked at the Austrian Mission to the EU in Brussels; the Delegation of the European Commission Delegation in Vienna (as adviser to the Ambassador, accredited to the Austrian Government as well as to the United Nations, the UNIDO, the Atomic Energy Agency and the Organization on Security and Cooperation in Europe). (http://eeas.europa.eu/delegations/vienna/index_en.htm)

For 15 months, he was Head of Delegation of the Red Cross in Burkina Faso / West Africa.

He was Secretary General of ÖGUT (Austrian Society for Environment and Technology, (http://www.oegut.at/en/), a mediation platform of Austrian Ministries, industry, and environmental NGOs. He opened and has been Director of the “EU-Environmental Bureau”, a co-ordination platform of Austrian environmental NGOs (http://www.eu-umweltbuero.at)

He was Deputy Secretary General of The Austrian Society for European Politics (http://www.oegfe.at/en/).

For two years, he worked as assistant to the Secretary General of the Federation of Austrian Industries on EC-issues.

In 1991-1992, he worked as an Austrian delegate with UNICE

He has also been Lecturer with a number of institutions,  and Trainer & Consultant on Development, Election and Human Rights issues.

He has worked as a Freelance Journalist in conflict areas of South and South East Asia (Burma, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam) & Central America. More recently, he has published numerous articles and essays with international media and publishers, in particular on conflict(resolution), international politics, democracy; as well as literary reviews and, last not least, literary fiction

https://www.gunther-neumann.com/?p=1968

https://www.residenzverlag.com/autor/gunther-neumann

Gunther Neumann has proficiency in the following UN languages: English, French and Spanish; and working knowledge in Italian, Portuguese and Modern Greek. His mother tongue is German.

He currently lives in Vienna with his wife and their two children.