Ambassador Michael Reiterer is an Associate Fellow within the Global Fellowship Initiative of the GCSP. Michael Reiterer is Distinguished Professor at the Centre for Security, Diplomacy and Strategy (CSDS) of the Brussels School of Governance (BSoG), He is the editor of the CSDS policy brief series.
Michael Reiterer pursued his academic career always in parallel to his diplomatic one at the Austrian and then European service. After graduating as Dr. jur. from the University of Innsbruck, post-graduate studies at the Johns Hopkins University/Bologna Centre and the Graduate Institute for International Studies in Geneva were further stepping stones to his habilitation (PhD) in International Politics at the University of Innsbruck (2005, Institute for Political Science) focussing on EU-Asia relations. EU foreign policy, EU-Asia relations in particular with Japan and Korea, inter-regionalism, security issues, new forms of diplomacy, human rights are nowadays the main focus of his research, having previously published extensively on international trade law and relations including WTO, trade and environment and the Asia Europe Meeting (ASEM). He has taught at various universities in Europe and Asia.
In September 2020 he retired from the European Diplomatic Service (European External Action Service-EEAS) as Ambassador plenipotentiary and extraordinary of the European Union to the Republic of Korea; previous posts included Ambassador to Switzerland and the Principality of Liechtenstein, Deputy Head of Mission/Minister at the EU Delegation to Japan, Minister Counsellor at the Austrian Permanent Representation to the EU, Counsellor at the Austrian Permanent Representation to the GATT, Austrian Deputy Trade Commissioner for West Africa (out of Abidjan/Ivory Coast) and to Japan. In addition, he co-chaired the Joint Group of Trade and Environment Experts at the OECD, served as panellist at the WTO dispute settlement and was a member of the European Economic and Social Committee.
Additional activities
Adjunct professor for international politics at Webster University, Vienna; Libera Università Internazionale degli Studi Sociali "Guido Carli" (LUISS), Rome; University of Innsbruck; Danube University, Krems/Austria.
Associate Fellow, Global Fellowship Initiative at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy (GCSP), Switzerland
Senior Advisor, Center for Asia Pacific Strategy (CAPS), Washington D.C.
Member of the Scientific Committee of the European Forum Alpbach/Austria
Member of the International Academic Consultative Council of the University of Kobe/Japan
Member of the Council of the Jean Monnet Foundation for Europe, Lausanne/Switzerland
Distinctions
Order of Merit in Silver with Star (2018), Government of the Republic of Austria
Honorary Citizenship of Seoul (2020), Seoul Metropolitan Government, Republic of Korea