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), serving, among other things, as Special Representative of the Secretary-General (SRSG) for Sudan and Head of the United Nations Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in Sudan (UNITAMS). Prior to this, from 2005 to 2020, Perthes was Executive Chairman and Director of SWP (Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik), the German Institute for International and Security Affairs. In 2015-2016, he also served as Senior Advisor to the UN Special Envoy for Syria. Perthes earned his doctoral degree in 1990 from the University of Duisburg. He was an assistant professor at the American University of Beirut from 1991 to 1993, a professor at Humboldt University Berlin from 2006 to 2019, and also taught international relations 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.