Description

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Joseph Maria Antoine Hubert (Joseph) Luns (Rotterdam, 28 August 1911 – Brussels, 17 July 2002) was a Dutch diplomat and politician. Between 1952 and 1971 he served in eight Dutch cabinets as minister, the first four years as minister without portfolio and from 1956 as minister of Foreign Affairs. From 1971 to 1984 he was NATO Secretary General.

Luns grew up in successive Rotterdam, Vught and Amsterdam. He studied in Leiden and Amsterdam, and after his studies he was admitted to the diplomatic service. As an attaché he was in Bern, Lisbon and London during the Second World War. After the founding of the United Nations, he became the Dutch envoy to this organization. In 1952 he became minister in the Drees II cabinet. Four years later he became Foreign Minister, a position he held until 1971. During this period he was intensively involved in European integration. He also shaped the Dutch New Guinea policy for years, which dominated the Dutch foreign policy in the early 1960s. During his ministry, Luns had built up a reputation internationally as an effective minister and negotiator, even exceeding the international significance of the Netherlands. In his time as NATO Secretary General, he worked for improved transatlantic relations and disarmament policy. After his retirement he continued to live in Brussels, where he died in 2002 at the age of almost 91.

Luns policy can best be characterized as real politics. Luns was portrayed by his political opponents as a conservative and reactionary politician. Historian Martin Bossenbroek describes Luns as “not an idealist, but a realistic power politician and as such a successful negotiator, a conservative nationalist,” but not reactionary. ” Bossenbroek further describes him as someone who filled spaces with his air, anecdotes, his length of 1.95 meters and unsalted opinions.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Luns