Heusgen was Germany’s ambassador to the United Nations between 2017 and 2021. Prior to this appointment and since 2005, Heusgen was the Foreign Policy and Security Adviser to Chancellor Angela Merkel. He served as Director of the Policy Unit for the European Union’s High Representative Javier Solana from 1999 to 2005.
Heusgen joined the German Foreign Service in 1980. He was posted to Chicago, Paris and Bonn. He is a graduate of the University of Saint Gallen in Switzerland and studied at Georgia Southern College in the United States and at the Sorbonne in Paris. He earned a post-graduate degree from the University of St. Gallen where he taught Political Science between 2020 and 2025.
He was Chairman of the Munich Security Conference between 2022 and 2025 and holds the position of Co-Conference Chairman of the St. Gallen Symposium.
