Expert in conflict prevention

Among other things, the conflict prevention expert is actively involved in a working group on humanitarian issues as a co-moderator in Geneva, which is endeavouring to mediate between the conflicting parties following the war in Georgia in 2008. He was already interested in Eastern Europe when he was at school and therefore decided to study International Economic Relations at the FH Burgenland in Eisenstadt, which was still very new at the time, with Russian as a language.

He wrote his final thesis on the topic of direct investment in the Baltic market. "Interestingly, this thesis was a recurring topic of conversation throughout my career." In 2009, Siegfried Wöber completed a Master of Interdisciplinary Balkan Studies at the University of Vienna, focussing his academic work on the Republic of Moldova. During his studies, Wöber was already involved in humanitarian initiatives and soon afterwards worked for aid organisations in the fields of development aid, human rights and conflict prevention in countries such as Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia.

During the Austrian OSCE Chairmanship in 2017, Siegfried Wöber was part of the Foreign Ministry team responsible for the Caucasus and Moldova, in particular the conflicts there. "That was classic diplomacy, and we were also able to implement very important confidence-building measures. I was then asked by the Italian Foreign Ministry if I could do the same for them."

What motivates him after so many years in this exciting and labour-intensive field? "Conflict work progresses on a small scale, but we can move things forward. Dialogue processes are always exciting."