Europe's Global Role in a Fragmented World: Diplomacy, Leadership, and Strategic Autonomy
hosted by Professor
Arntraud Hartmann
Martin Eichtinger
Director, Vienna School of International Studies / Diplomatische Akademie; Former Austrian Ambassador to Italy
Bert Koenders
Kooymans Chair in Peace, Security and Law, Leiden University; President, Dutch Advisory Council on International Affairs; Advisor, World Bank
MARTIN EICHTINGER
Ambassador Martin Eichtinger is the Director of the Vienna School of International Studies / Diplomatische Akademie, since August 1, 2025. From August 2024 to July 2025, he served as Austrian Ambassador to Italy.
Ambassador Eichtinger began his diplomatic career in 1988, working as the personal secretary to Vice-Chancellor and Foreign Minister Alois Mock until 1992. His diplomatic assignments included Mexico, Washington, D.C., where he headed the Austrian Press and Information Service from 1992-1999 and Romania and the Republic of Moldova, where he was accredited as Austrian Ambassador from 2007 to 2010.
Between 1999 and 2007, he was Chief of Cabinet of the Austrian Special Representative for Payments to Former Forced and Slave Laborers of the Nazi-Regime, Director for International Affairs at the Austrian Federation of Industry, manager in a private company, Chief of Staff and later Secretary General of the Austrian Federal Ministry of Economics and Labor.
From 2010-2015 he served as Director General for Cultural Policy at the Austrian Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs, before he was assigned to the United Kingdom as Austria's Ambassador (2015-2018). In 2018, he was sworn into office as Minister in the Regional Government of Lower Austria.
After completion of his term of office at the beginning of 2023, he returned to the Austrian Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs as Special Representative and Coordinator of Austria's neighbourhood policy and the foreign policy dimension of the Danube Region.
Ambassador Eichtinger has pursued postgraduate studies at Johns Hopkins University in Bologna, Italy, and in Paris.
BERT KOENDERS
Bert Koenders holds at present the Kooymans Chair in Peace, Security and Law at Leiden University, is President of the Dutch Advisory Council on International Affairs and Advisor to the World Bank (from 2019 - 2021 Koenders was Special Envoy of the World Bank on fragile states).
From 17 October 2014 until October 2017, Koenders has been Minister of Foreign Affairs. In the first half of 2016 the Netherlands held the Presidency of the Council of the European Union. From August 2011 to October 2014, Koenders was Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations; from May 2013 he was head of the Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA). From August 2011 to July 2013, he was the Secretary-General's Special Representative and head of the UN Operation in Côte d'Ivoire.
Between 2010 and 2011 Koenders worked as a negotiator and Co-chair on Economics and Development for the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's Busan Partnership agreement.
From February 2007 to February 2010 Koenders was Minister for Development Cooperation, managing a complex development budget of 5 billion euro. Koenders was also sitting in the Development Committee of the World Bank.
From 2000 - 2002 Koenders was Visiting Professor Conflict Management at the Johns Hopkins University Bologna Centre (between 1984 - 1987 Koenders taught international relations and economics at Webster University in Leiden)
From November 1997 to February 2007 Koenders was a Member of the House of Representatives serving as spokesperson on foreign affairs, trade, corporate social responsibility and international financial institutions. Prior to this, he was employed at the European Commission in the field of Enlargement Policy, from 1993 to 1994, by the United Nations in Mozambique, Mexico and South Africa. He has also worked as a Director for the organisation Parliamentarians for Global Action. Koenders was a member of the parliamentary inquiry committee on Srebrenica and was briefly President of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly from 2006 to 2007. He was Founder of the Parliamentary Network on the World Bank and International Monetary Fund and served as its chair between 2000 and 2007.
Koenders studied Political and Social Sciences, International Economics and African/M.East Studies at the Free University of Amsterdam, the University of Amsterdam and the Johns Hopkins University SAIS in Washington, DC.
