Volker Perthes has recently been appointed Senior Advisor at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP) which he has led as executive chairman and director from October 2005 to September 2020. From 2015 to 2016, Perthes also served as UN Assistant Secretary General and senior advisor to the UN Special Envoy for Syria, from 2016 to 2018 as Chairperson of the Cease-Fire Task Force for Syria on behalf of the United Nations. Perthes has authored numerous books and articles and is a frequent commentator, in German and international media, on German and European foreign and security policy, international relations and geopolitics, and regional dynamics in the Middle East. He holds a PhD from Duisburg University.