Konstantinos ARVANITOPOULOS

Minister of Education and Religious Affairs, Greece

Constantine Arvanitopoulos is Professor of International Relations at the Department of International and European Studies at Panteion University, Athens. He is a graduate of Panteion University and holds an MA and a PhD in International Relations from the School of International Service, American University, Washington DC.

He has been Lecturer on International Relations and Comparative Politics at the School of International Service at the American University (1987-89), Post-doctoral Fellow at the Center for European Studies at Harvard University (1990-92) and Assistant Professor of Government and European Politics at the Department of Public and International Affairs at George Mason University (1992-95).

His research interests are in International Relations theory, specifically the study of regime change, European politics and US foreign policy analysis. He has taught courses on theory and methodology of International Relations, European politics, and comparative politics.

He has published articles on the EU, the non-aligned movement, Greek-Turkish relations, the study of leadership and authoritarian regimes. He has written books on the transitions from authotitarianism to democracy, on transatlantic relations, on US foreign policy and a textbook on international relations.

He has been the Director General of the Constantinos Karamanlis Institute for Democracy since June 2000. His latest appointments include the following: Representative of the New Democracy Party (ND) to the National Council of Foreign Policy, Member of the Academic Council of the Centre for European Studies (CES) and Member of the Board of Directors of UNESCO-Greece. Constantine Arvanitopoulos was also the spokesperson for the New Democracy Party during the national elections of September 2007.

He was Director of the Political Office of the President of New Democracy from 2009-2011. On November 11, 2011 he was appointed Minister of Education, Lifelong Learning and Religion in the coalition Government of Lucas Papademos. In the national elections of May 6th 2012 he was elected member of the Greek Parliament with New Democracy and in the elections of June 17th he was reelected and was appointed Minister of Education, Religious Affairs, Culture and Sport. Today he serves as Minister of Education and Religious Affairs.