Wolfgang Ischinger is chairman of the Munich Security Conference. He is also Global Head of Government Relations at Allianz SE, Munich. Prior to this, he served as the Federal Republic of Germany's ambassador to the Court of St. James's, and from 2001 to 2006 he was the German Ambassador to the United States of America. From 1998 to 2001 he served as State Secretary of the German Federal Foreign Office, where his responsibilities included relations with Russia; security, defense and arms control questions; crisis management in the Balkans, EU security and defense policy and other international organization issues. In 2007, he represented the European Union in the troika negotiations on the future of Kosovo. He was also Director General for Political Affairs from 1995 to 1998 participating in international negotiations including the Bosnia Peace Talks at Dayton. He was Director of the Policy Planning Staff of the German Foreign Office in Bonn and private secretary to the Foreign Minister. He also served as Chairman of the Ambassadors Advisory Board of the Executive Council on Diplomacy in Washington, DC. He studied law at the universities of Bonn and Geneva and obtained his law degree in 1972. Ambassador Ischinger received an M.A. from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and studied law at Harvard Law School, USA.