Giulio Terzi di Sant'Agata

Giulio Terzi di Sant'Agata
Minister of Foreign Affairs
In office 16 November 2011 – 26 March 2013
Prime Minister	Mario Monti
Preceded by	Franco Frattini
Succeeded by	Mario Monti
Personal details
Born	(1946-06-09) 9 June 1946 Bergamo, Italy
Political party	Independent (1973-2013) Brothers of Italy (2013-present)
Alma mater	University of Milan

Giulio Maria Terzi di Sant'Agata (Italian pronunciation: [ˈdʒuːljo ˈtɛrtsi di sanˈtaːɡata]) (Count) (born 9 June 1946) is an Italian diplomat who was Italy's Minister of Foreign Affairs from November 2011 until he resigned 26 March 2013. From August 2008 to September 2009 he was the Permanent Representative of Italy to the United Nations in New York, where he also headed the Italian Delegation to the United Nations Security Council, which Italy had joined as non-permanent member for the 2007-2008 term. He then served as Italy's ambassador to the United States from 2009 to 2011.

Whole name

Count Giulio Maria Terzi of Sant'Agata, The Lord of Sant'Agata, Marquis of Palazzolo, Count of Restenau, Baron, Knight of the Holy Roman Empire, Noble of Bergamo (in Italian Conte Giulio Maria Terzi di Sant'Agata, Signore di Sant'Agata, Marchese di Palazzolo, Conte di Restenau, Barone, Cavaliere del Sacro Romano Impero, Nobile di Bergamo).

Education

Terzi earned a degree in Law at the University of Milan, specializing in International Law.

Early career

Born in Bergamo, Terzi is a career diplomat. He joined Italy's foreign service in 1973. During his first two years at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Rome, he served as a Protocol Officer assigned to visits abroad by Italian Government Officials. In 1975 he was posted as First Secretary for political affairs at the Italian Embassy in Paris. After returning to Rome in 1978, as Special Assistant to the Secretary General, he was in Canada as Economic and Commercial Counsellor for almost five years, a period of sharp growth in economic and high-tech cooperation between Italy and Canada. He was Consul General in Vancouver during Expo 86, where he promoted major events for Italian businesses and culture on Canada’s Pacific Coast.

In 1987, Terzi returned to Rome to serve first at the Department for Economic Affairs, focusing on high technology exchange, and later as Head of one of the Offices of the Department of Personnel and Human Resources. His next foreign assignment was to NATO in Brussels, where he was Political Adviser to the Italian Mission to the North Atlantic Council in the immediate aftermath of the Cold War, German reunification, and the first Gulf War.

Later career

From 1993 to 1998, Terzi was in New York at the Permanent Mission of Italy to the United Nations as First Counsellor for Political Affairs and later as Minister and Deputy Permanent Representative. During this period – marked by the Bosnian War, the Somali Civil War, as well as conflicts in the African Great Lakes region – Italy was a non-permanent member of the Security Council. By the mid-nineties globalisation and new challenges to international security underscored the need for major reforms of the UN bodies, a cause that Italy championed in all the UN fora.

Terzi served as deputy secretary general of Italy's Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Rome, director general for political affairs and human rights, and political director. In this capacity, his responsibilities included major international security and political issues, especially in the framework of the UN Security Council, the UN General Assembly, and the UN Council on Human Rights, as well as the Council of the European Union, NATO, the G8, and OSCE. He also advised the Foreign Minister on international security, focusing on the Western Balkans, the Middle East, Afghanistan, East Africa, nuclear proliferation, terrorism, and human rights.

His most recent overseas posting was ambassador of Italy to Israel (2002–2004), a period characterized by the outbreak of the Second Intifada, improved relations between the EU and Israel during the Italian Presidency of the EU (July–December 2003), and the renewed commitment of Israel and the Palestinian Authority to the peace process on the basis of the road map.

Foreign minister

On 16 November 2011 Terzi was named Minister of Foreign Affairs in the technocratic cabinet headed by Prime Minister Mario Monti.

Terzi resigned from office on 26 March 2013 in the wake of calls for his resignation and severe criticism in Italy for his handling of the diplomatic dispute between Italy and India over the 2012 Enrica Lexie incident.

Defence minister Giampaolo di Paola drew parallels between Giulio Terzi's resignation and the actions of Captain Francesco Schettino of the Costa Concordia, saying that they both abandoned a sinking ship.

On 27 March 2013, Italian Prime-Minister Mario Monti addressed the Italian parliament and revealed that Giulio Terzi repeatedly hampered efforts to settle the dispute with India in a quiet manner by perpetuating controversies through hawkish statements posted on Twitter. Monti attributed the “hardening” of India’s stance to “rash” statements to the press by Terzi and concluded his parliamentary briefing on the debacle, saying that Italy’s strategy "shouldn’t have been the subject of premature statements to the press, which Minister Terzi decided instead to make, previewing a final result which at that point couldn’t be taken for granted,”.

References

As of this edit, this article uses content from "Ambassador of Italy to the United States", which is licensed in a way that permits reuse under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, but not under the GFDL. All relevant terms must be followed. As of this edit, this article uses content from "Embassy of Italy to the United States", which is licensed in a way that permits reuse under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, but not under the GFDL. All relevant terms must be followed.

External links

• Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs
• Embassy of Italy to the United States

Diplomatic posts
Preceded by Marcello Spatafora	Permanent Representative of Italy to the United Nations 2008–2009	Succeeded by Cesare Ragaglini
Political offices
Preceded by Franco Frattini	Minister of Foreign Affairs 2011–2013	Succeeded by Mario Monti Acting