Ambassador Alessandro Minuto-Rizzo is currently the President of the NATO Defense College Foundation in Rome.
After serving at the Italian Embassy in Washington and as Commercial Counsellor at the Italian Embassy in Prague, he worked as Head of the External Relations Office of the EEC from 1981 to 1986.
In the following years, his career focused on Europe and space policy. In 1997, he was appointed Diplomatic Advisor to Defence Minister Beniamino Andreatta, then to his successors Carlo Scognamiglio and Sergio Mattarella. In 2000, Ambassador Minuto-Rizzo served as Italian Ambassador to the Western European Union and to the EU Political and Security Committee, of which he was a founding member. He was Deputy Secretary General of the Atlantic Alliance between 2001 and 2007. His mandate was mainly in the area of strategic industrial policy and in relations with sensitive countries such as those in the Gulf and Southern Mediterranean.
He is the author of the books: ‘The Road to Kabul. La comunità internazionale e le crisi in Asia Centrale” (Il Mulino-Arel, 2009); “Un viaggio politico senza mappe. Between Diversity and Future in the Greater Middle East” (Rubbettino, 2013); and “NATO and the Middle East: The Making of a Partnership” (New Academia Publishing, 2018).