Graduated from the Institute in 1972, Mr Wilfried M. Bolewski is a lawyer by training, a diplomat by profession and an academic by choice.
Lawyer and Diplomat
Wilfried M. Bolewski, born in 1943 in Berlin, studied law and economics in Berlin, Marburg, Geneva and Cambridge and holds degrees from the Graduate Institute and the Freie Universität Berlin. After his PhD thesis in International Law he became legal advisor at CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research) in Geneva.
As a German diplomat, he served in Italy (Milan and Rome), Poland (Warsaw), Australia (Sydney), Cameroon (Yaoundé) and Pakistan (Islamabad). He gained multilateral security experience at the NATO Nuclear Planning Group, the UN-Conference on Disarmament and the NATO Defense College Rome.
Wilfried M. Bolewski became German Ambassador to Jamaica, Belize and the Commonwealth of the Bahamas and Germany’s Permanent Representative to the International Sea-Bed Authority in Kingston, Jamaica.
He served as Deputy Chief of Protocol for Chancellors Gerhard Schröder and Angela Merkel and as German Foreign Office Special Representative for Universities and Foundations at the Foreign Service Academy Berlin.
Academic Career
Parallel to his diplomatic career, Ambassador Bolewski pursued an academic career teaching Diplomacy at the faculties of law and political science of the Freie Universität Berlin where he became Professor of International Law and Diplomacy and as Senior Fellow at the Hertie School of Governance Berlin.
Since 2008 he has taught at Sciences Po Paris (Master of Public Affairs, Master of International Affairs and Master of Law and Economic Globalization). In 2011, he became Professor at The American University of Paris and Faculty Member of the Académie diplomatique internationale of Paris.
Professor Bolewski has published widely in German, English and French on International Law, Diplomacy and Protocol. He lectures on new dimensions of diplomacy, including the role of multinational corporations and non-state actors. He continues to work on the interface of diplomacy in a globalising world and its application by private actors such as transnational companies (Corporate Diplomacy).