Laurent Goetschel received his Ph.D. from the Graduate Institute of International Relations (IUHEI) at the University of Geneva (1993). He worked as a journalist with the Swiss service of the Associated Press (AP), conducted research with the IUHEI's Program for Strategic and International Security Studies (1990-1992) and with the Graduate Institute of Public Administration (IDHEAP) at the University of Lausanne (1992-1995), where he was also a lecturer (1994-1995). After having served as a visiting scholar with the Center for European Studies at Harvard University (1995-1996) he joined swisspeace as a research analyst. He has taught Swiss foreign policy at the Institute of Political Science at the University of Berne from 1997 to 2003 and directed a Swiss National Science Foundation's research programme on Swiss foreign policy from 1997 to 2000. Since then he has been director of swisspeace and professor of political science at the Europe Institute of the University of Basle. From 2003 to 2004 he served as the political advisor to the Swiss minister for foreign affairs Micheline Calmy-Rey.