Kai Eide

Kai Eide is the UN Secretary General's Envoy to Afghanistan and head of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, starting 10 March 2008. He is Norwegian, and comes to the assignment from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, where he was Permanent representative of Norway to NATO from 2002 to 2006. In 2005 he was Special Envoy of the UN Secretary-General in Kosovo and from 1997-1998 in Bosnia and Herzegovina

He has worked with other international organizations, including the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE), from their starting process int he 1970s. He was Norwegian Ambassador to the OSCE from 1998 to 2002, including Chairman of the OSCE Permanent Council in 1999.

In the Norwegian government, he was responsible for foreign and security policies in the Office of the Norwegian Prime Minister during 1989 and 1990. He also served as Special Adviser to the CEO of the Norwegian oil company STATOIL before reentering the Norwegian Foreign Service.