Klaus Mattias Törnudd (born. 26 December 1931

Helsinki Helsinki () is the Capital city, capital and most populous List of cities and towns in Finland, city in Finland. It is on the shore of the Gulf of Finland and is the seat of southern Finland's Uusimaa region. About people live in the municipali ...

) is a Finnish diplomat and researcher in politics and international politics. He has been a professor and ambassador for political science. The parents of Klaus Törnudd were the translator Allan Viktor Törnudd and Helene Margareta Niininen, a child care inspector who became known as a writer. He belongs to his father's side in to the Törnudd family.

Early career

Klaus Törnudd graduated from Svenska Lyceum in Helsinki in 1949, graduated from the

University of Helsinki The University of Helsinki (, ; UH) is a public university in Helsinki, Finland. The university was founded in Turku in 1640 as the Royal Academy of Åbo under the Swedish Empire, and moved to Helsinki in 1828 under the sponsorship of Alexander ...

in 1956 and graduated as a PhD in 1961 from a non-military subject ''Soviet Attitude towards Non-Military Regional Co-operation''. He had been employed by the Finnish

Ministry for Foreign Affairs In many countries, the ministry of foreign affairs (abbreviated as MFA or MOFA) is the highest government department exclusively or primarily responsible for the state's foreign policy and relations, diplomacy, bilateral, and multilateral rela ...

since 1958. Between 1961 and 1964, he was Assistant and Second Secretary of the United Nations Office in New York. Törnudd served as Secretary of State for 1964–1966 in

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and then as the Deputy Secretary for Foreign Affairs of the Year. Between 1967 and 1971 he was a professor of international politics at the

University of Tampere The University of Tampere (UTA) (, ) was a public university in Tampere, Finland that was merged with Tampere University of Technology to create the new Tampere University on 1 January 2019. The university offered undergraduate, postgraduate an ...

. However, he returned to the diplomatic circle, initially for two years as a secretary in

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Special Representative

Between 1973 and 1974, he worked at the Special Representative for the

OSCE The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) is a regional security-oriented intergovernmental organization comprising member states in Europe, North America, and Asia. Its mandate includes issues such as arms control, the pr ...

project in

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and then at the Political Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, head of which he served in 1977–1981. During this time, the department was particularly active in defending Finland's neutrality in relation to the Soviet Union. From fall 1981 to January 1983, Törnudd was on leave from the Ministry and was responsible for the Swedish-speaking general professorship of the

. He was also a docent of General Political Science at the same university in the years 1975–1996.

Political Under-Secretary

Between 1983 and 1988, Törnudd served as Political Under-Secretary of State at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and from 1988 to 1991 as

Permanent Representative of Finland to the United Nations This is a list of the United Nations Permanent Representative, permanent representatives of the Finland, Republic of Finland to the United Nations. The current office holder iElina Kalkku List See also * Foreign relations of Finland References ...

. After two years in office as a negotiating officer, he served as the last Ambassador of the

Republic of France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the North Atlantic, the French West Indies, an ...

in 1993–1996. From this task, Törnudd retired. He still aspired to the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the two legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it ...

as a candidate for the

Swedish People's Party The Swedish People's Party of Finland (SPP; , SFP; , RKP) is a Finnish political party founded in 1906. Its primary aim is to represent the interests of the minority Swedish-speaking population of Finland. The party is currently a participant in ...

but was not elected.

Diplomacy

Much of Törnudd's scientific production deals with multilateral diplomacy and the United Nations. Security policy and human rights issues have also been important to him. He has also written parts of the series of publications dealing with the history of the

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and

Parliament In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

. Törnudd has also had many domestic and international positions of trust. He was chairman of the Finnish OSCE Committee in 1977-1981 and Chairman of the Board of the Peace and Conflict Research Institute in 1978–1982. In the 1980s, he led some international working groups devising nuclear non-proliferation zones.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tornudd, Klaus Ambassadors of Finland to France Permanent representatives of Finland to the United Nations 1931 births Academic staff of the University of Tampere Finnish political scientists Diplomats from Helsinki Living people