Orders, Decorations, and Medals of Latvia - Recipients of the Order of the Three Stars, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, Karlis Aperats, Raimonds Staprans (Paperback)

Purchase includes free access to book updates online and a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Chapters: Recipients of the Order of the Three Stars, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, Karlis Aperats, Raimonds Staprans, Indulis Emsis, Uldis rmanis, Order of Lplsis, Arnolds Spekke, Memory Medal for Advancing Latvia's Membership to Nato, Imants Viesturs Lieis, Ruta aca-Marjaa. Excerpt: Jakob Gijsbert "Jaap" de Hoop Scheffer (), born 3 April 1948) is a Dutch politician who served as 11th Secretary General of NATO from 2004 to 2009. De Hoop Scheffer served as the Dutch foreign minister, and was an important figure in the Dutch decision to participate in the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Born in Amsterdam, De Hoop Scheffer graduated with an LL.M. degree at Leiden University in 1974. After completing military service in the air force, where he became a reserve officer, 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. Although he has been a member of the D66 party, he became a member of the Christen-Democratisch Appl (CDA) in 1982. At the elections of 1986, he was elected to the House of Representatives. He was a spokesman on foreign affairs for his party. Between 1997 and 2001, he was the leader of the CDA delegation in the House of Representatives, at a time when the CDA was in opposition. This made him the party leader. When the list of candidates for the 2002 elections was chosen, his position as the party leader of the CDA became uncertain. After a power struggle with the party chairman Van Rij, De Hoop Scheffer resigned as party leader. Jan Peter Balkenende succeeded him, and had the top spot on the CDA list of candidates in the elections on 15 May 2002. The CDA won in those ele... More: http://booksllc.net/?id=321413