Colonel (ret.) Wolfgang Richter
AIES Senior Advisor
1968–1981: Military and academic education; commanding officer with paratrooper units; General Staff Academy Hamburg
1981–1989: National studies on conventional and nuclear defense planning; General Staff Officer Airborne Brigade 26 and at Supreme Headquarters of Allied Forces in Europe (SHAPE), Belgium: Operational and conventional arms control concepts; Participation in CFE negotiations in Vienna
1989–1991: Research fellow at SWP: Concepts for the future role of the CSCE; conventional arms control in Europe; tasks and capabilities of united German Armed Forces
1991–1993: Commander of a Mechanized Infantry Regiment of the former GDR National People’s Army
1993–1995: Desk officer for a comprehensive concept of the united German Armed Forces, German Ministry of Defense
1995–1999: Head of the MoD section of the German delegation to the Conference on Disarmament, Geneva, and the United Nations, New York; German representative to three UN expert panels (SALW, UN Register of Conventional Arms) and UNDC WG on disarmament, demobilization and reintegration of former combatants in internal armed conflicts
1999–2005: Head of Department, German Armed Forces Centre for conventional and nuclear arms control and verification tasks; head of several inspection teams
2005–2009: Head of the MoD section of the Permanent Representation of Germany to the OSCE, Vienna; responsibilities included OSCE security cooperation, conventional arms control (CFE Joint Consultative Group) and CSBMS; unresolved territorial conflicts, de-escalation missions and analysis of the war in Georgia in August 2008
II/III 2009: Contribution to the Independent Fact-Finding Mission on the War in Georgia 2008 (“Tagliavini-Commission”)
Since 2010: Senior Associate, German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP), Berlin
Research and publications, inter alia, on Conventional arms control and CSBMs European Security Order and the role of the OSCE, Ukraine-conflict and protracted conflicts in the OSCE area, NATO’s strategic concept, Combat drones and lethal autonomous weapon systems