Karin Kneissl

Following the 15 October 2017 parliamentary elections in Austria, Sebastian Kurz was sworn in by Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen as Federal Chancellor of Austria on 18th December 2017. Karin Kneissl was appointed Federal Minister for Europe, Integration and Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Austria. Consequently, Kneissl assumed the role of OSCE Chairperson-in-Office on the same day.

Karin Kneissl was born in 1965 in Vienna. She studied law and Arab studies at the University of Vienna. She also studied at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the University of Amman, the University of Urbino and was a Fulbright scholar at Georgetown University in Washington, DC. Karin Kneissl is also a graduate of the Ecole Nationale d’Administration (ENA) in Paris.

From 1990 to 1998 Karin Kneissl held a number of posts in the Austrian diplomatic service, including in the cabinet of then foreign minister Dr Alois Mock, in the Office of International Law and at the Austrian embassies in Paris and Madrid.

Since 1998 Karin Kneissl has worked as an independent lecturer in the areas of international law, Middle Eastern history and the energy market at various universities, including the University of Vienna; the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna; the European Business School in the Rheingau, Germany; the International Centre for Human Sciences in Byblos, Lebanon; Saint-Joseph University in Beirut; as well as at the Austrian Armed Forces National Defence Academy, Vienna and Theresian Military Academy in Wiener Neustadt, Lower Austria.

Karin Kneissl has also worked since 1998 as an independent commentator and correspondent for numerous German and English-speaking print media, as well as for the Austrian state broadcaster ORF. She has authored a large number of books and publications.

Karin Kneissl speaks various foreign languages: Arabic, English, French, Hebrew (basic), Italian, Hungarian (basic) and Spanish.