Dr Volker Perthes, currently a Senior Distinguished Fellow at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP) and a freelanced author, is a former UN Under-Secretary-General (January 2021 to March 2024). Among other things, he served as Special Representative of the Secretary-General (SRSG) for Sudan and Head of the United Nations Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in Sudan (UNITAMS). He also led the Independent Strategic Review on the United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq (UNAMI). Prior to this, from 2005 to 2020, Perthes was Executive Chairman and Director of SWP, the German Institute for International and Security Affairs. In 2015-2016, he also served as UN Assistant Secretary-General and Senior Advisor to the UN Special Envoy for Syria. Perthes earned his doctoral degree in 1990 from the University of Duisburg. From 1991 to 1993, he was an assistant professor at the American University of Beirut from 1991 to 1993. He was a professor of international relations at Humboldt University Berlin from 2006 to 2019, and also taught at other schools. Perthes is a renowned scholar, speaker and policy advisor, and author of numerous books and articles on the Middle East, Europe, and international affairs.