Ambassador Boris Ruge took up his assignment as Vice-Chairman of the Munich Security Conference in August 2019. He previously served as Director Middle East/North Africa at the Foreign Office in Berlin, as German Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, and as Deputy Ambassador to the US.

Having joined the Foreign Service in 1989, much of Ambassador Ruge’s career has been focused on security policy and stabilization. He worked at NATO Headquarters in Brussels during the Kosovo air campaign and later served as Chief Political Adviser to two successive Commanders of the Kosovo Force and as Head of the Political Department at the Office of the High Representative in Bosnia-Herzegovina. At the Foreign Office he was also in charge of European security and defence issues.

Following undergraduate studies at the University of Cologne, Ambassador Ruge received a master’s degree in history from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He holds a diploma in international relations from the Bologna Center of the Johns Hopkins University and was a participant in the 2005 course of the Royal College of Defence Studies in London. He is married and has three daughters and one son.

Participating in session: 

Heating Up: The Impact of Climate Security on the Alliance