Alar Olljum

Areas of expertise: EU foreign and security policy, EU neighbourhood policy, EU-Gulf, and transatlantic relations

Languages: English, Estonian, French, Swedish.

Alar Olljum joined the ICDS as a non-resident research fellow in January 2025. With a diplomatic career spanning over three decades, Alar Olljum has wide experience in European foreign policy, with a focus on Europe’s eastern and southern neighbourhoods, transatlantic relations, and the Gulf.  He began his diplomatic career in 1990, serving for a decade in senior positions in the renascent Estonian Foreign Ministry, starting as Special Advisor to Foreign Minister Lennart Meri, and later attaining the rank of Ambassador and serving as its first Secretary-General.  In 2001-05, he served as Deputy Director-General of the International Secretariat of the Council of the Baltic Sea States. In 2006, he was recruited as a permanent official of the European Union, starting as Head of Forward Studies in the European Commission’s Directorate General for External Relations, where he co-chaired a review of EU-Russia relations and led a task force on democracy and reform in the Arab world. At the creation of the European External Action Service (EEAS) in 2011, he was appointed Advisor to the EEAS Managing Director for the Middle East and North Africa, helping craft the EU’s response to the so-called Arab Spring and launching policy dialogues with EU strategic partners. In 2015-16, he served as EU Senior Fellow under Dr Fiona Hill at the Center for US and Europe at the Brookings Institution, where his research focused on the re-emergence of great power rivalry in the MENA region. Soon after returning to EEAS HQ, he was posted as Minister Counsellor to the EU Delegation in Riyadh where he deputised for the Head of the Delegation and was responsible for managing the EU’s relations with Kuwait and Qatar and the establishment of a new, fully-fledged EU Delegation to Kuwait. On his return to EEAS HQ in Brussels, he served as Senior Advisor for Policy Planning and Strategic Foresight, where his responsibilities included EU-NATO and transatlantic affairs, post-Brexit relations with the UK, MENA/Gulf regional affairs, and cooperation with think tanks. Mr Olljum retired from active service for the EU in November 2024.