Marc Otte

Belgium's Special Envoy for Syria and Vice-President of the European Institute for Peace

Ambassador Marc Otte  is the Kingdom of Belgium's Special Envoy for Syria and Vice-President of the European Institute for Peace.  He is a Senior Associate Fellow at the Egmont: Royal Institute for International Relations, having previously served the institute as its Director General for four years.

As a Belgian diplomat, he has served in Washington, DC, United States of America, Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and as the Ambassador of Belgium to Israel.  His long diplomatic service also includes working as the Directors for strategic affairs and disarmament as well as policy planning at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Belgium. From 1999 to 2003, he was advisor for security and defence policy to the High Representative for EU foreign and security policy, and from 2003 to 2011, EU Special Representative for the Middle East Peace Process.  He has written countless articles and contributed to books on European defence and security as well as on the Middle East (West Asia).