Klaus-Peter Klaiber

Klaus-Peter Klaiber (born June 21, 1940 in Stuttgart) is a former German diplomat who was EU Special Representative for Afghanistan between 2001 and 2002 and then ambassador to Australia from 2002 to 2005.

Life
Klaiber is the son of Manfred Klaiber, the first head of the Office of the Federal President and later ambassador. He studied law at the University of Bonn and the University of Tübingen. Two years later, he received his doctorate from the University of Mainz with a dissertation titled "The Cancellation of administrative acts in French Law". That same year, he completed postgraduate studies in economics and history at the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva in 1967.

Klaiber entered the German foreign service in 1968. He held posts abroad at the German embassies in Zaire (1971-1973), Washington (1977-1980) and Kenya (1980-1982), and was employed for five years at the Federal Foreign Office training center in Bonn (1973-1977). In 1982, he was promoted to deputy head of the department for European political cooperation at the Bonn headquarters of the Foreign Office. In 1985, the then-Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher brought him into office as deputy director of the ministerial office.

In 1988, he became minister-counselor (political affairs) at the German Embassy in London, and then deputy political director of the Foreign Office and Head of the Ministry's Security Policy Sub-Division from 1992 to 1995. He became head of the policy planning division of the German Foreign Office in Bonn from 1995 to 1997.

After his return to Germany in 1997, Klaiber became NATO's assistant secretary general for political affairs, serving during the Balkan conflicts in Kosovo. He then became the European Union's first special representative for Afghanistan in 2001, and in this capacity supported the establishment of a transitional government and the establishment of democratic institutions. He held this position until he was replaced by Francesc Vendrell in 2002.

Most recently, in 2002, Klaiber succeeded Horst Bächmann as ambassador at the German embassy in Canberra, until his retirement in 2005. His successor as ambassador was Martin Lutz.