Biographie

Jiří Šedivý has been the director general of the European Defense Agency (EDA) since May 2020.

Mr. Šedivý served as Minister of Defense of the Czech Republic (2006-2007), Deputy Minister of Defense (2010-2012), NATO Assistant Secretary General for Defense Policy and Planning (2007-2010), and Permanent Representative of the Czech Republic to NATO (2012-2019). He also served as Deputy Minister for European Affairs of the Czech Republic (2007) and Special Representative for Resilience and New Threats at the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs (2019-2020).

Mr. Šedivý graduated from Charles University (Prague) with a PhD in Political Science and from King’s College (London) with an MA in War Studies. From 2004 to 2006, he was a professor of security studies at the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies, lecturing on a variety of topics including the role of the United States in the Middle East. Marshall European Center for Security Studies, lecturing on topics such as defense transformation, civil-military relations and national strategy development.

Between 1999 and 2004, he was Director of the Institute of International Relations in Prague, Assistant Professor of International Relations at Charles University in Prague and Professor of European Security at New York University, Prague Center. As an expert, he played an important role in the Czech Republic’s accession to NATO. During this time he also served as an external advisor to President Václav Havel.