Jaap de Hoop Scheffer is Professor Emeritus of International Relations and Diplomatic Practice (2009 – 2014). He graduated with an LL.M. degree at Leiden University in 1974. He worked for the ministry of foreign affairs from 1976 to 1986. For the first two years, he was stationed at the Dutch embassy in Ghana. After that, he worked at the Dutch delegation at NATO headquarters in Brussels until 1980. He became the 11th NATO Secretary General in 2004, and held this post until August 2009. On 1 September 2009 De Hoop Scheffer was appointed to the Pieter Kooijmans Chair for Peace, Law and Security at Leiden University. De Hoop Scheffer focused on issues in the area of peace, law and security and also lectures in the field of international politics and the practice of diplomacy.