***THIS EVENT IS POSTPONED***
Antonio Patriota is a career diplomat and current Minister of External Relations of Brazil, succeeding former Future of Diplomacy Project Fisher Family Fellow, Celso Amorim, in January of 2011. Minister Patriota will be delivering his remarks on Brazil's changing role in the world as part of the Future of Diplomacy Project's international speaker series.
Patriota was born in Rio de Janeiro on April 27, 1954. After having earned a diploma in Philosophy from the University of Geneva, he went on to graduate in 1979 from Brazil’s diplomatic academy, the Rio Branco Institute. At the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Relations, in Brasília, he worked as an adviser to the Head of the United Nations Division from 1980 to 1982, as an adviser to the Secretary General for Political Affairs from 1990 to 1992, and as the Deputy Diplomatic adviser to the President of Brazil from 1992 to 1994.
Overseas, he served as a member of Brazil’s Permanent Mission to the International Organizations in Geneva, from 1983 to 1986, as Political Councilor at the Brazilian Embassy in Beijing from 1987 to 1988, as Head of the Economic Section of the Brazilian Embassy in Caracas from 1988 to 1990, and as a Political Councilor at Brazil’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations, in New York, from 1994 to 1999.
He was a member of Brazil’s Delegation to the U.N. Security Council in 1995 and from 1998 to 1999. He served as Minister Councilor at Brazil’s Permanent Mission to the International Organizations in Geneva from 1999 to 2003. During the last two years of this posting, he served as Brazil’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the World Trade Organization.
Upon his return to Brasília, he served as Secretary for Diplomatic Planning in the Office of the Minister of Foreign Relations. He was promoted to the rank of Ambassador in December 2003 and served as Chief of Staff to the Minister of Foreign Relations, Ambassador Celso Amorim, from May 2004 through May 2005.
Prior to his appointment as Brazilian Ambassador to the United States in February 2007, he served as Under Secretary General for Political Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Relations. In October 2009, Ambassador Patriota was appointed Brazil’s Secretary General of External Relations.
