From cold to diplomacy
June 23, 1937 Nobel Peace Prize 2008 and prestigious diplomat Martti Ahtisaari was born in Finland in Viipuri (today Vyborg, Russia) on June 23, 1937. At the outbreak of World War II the family moved to Finland. Since Ahtisaari youth cooperates with various student organizations, eventually becoming, in 1965, an expert in development cooperation at the Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In 1973, the then President Urho Kekkonen, appointed him Ambassador to Tanzania with delegation for Somalia and Mozambique. At that time, Ahtisaari begins to weave a network of contacts, particularly with SWAPO (South West Africa People's Organization), an organization led by Dar Es Salaam that would lead to the independence of Namibia in 1990, until then occupied by South Africa. After the first experience in Africa, Ahtisaari, he holds different posts on behalf of the United Nations, which is under Secretary General for financial and administrative matters, from 1987 to 199x, managing to reorganize the Administration and increase efficiency. In 1993 back in Finland, where he was appointed presidential candidate for the Social Democratic Party, winning in the second round against the representative of the Swedish people's Party (which despite its name is the main Liberal Party in Finland), Elisabeth Rehn. Once President, its involvement in the international sphere does not stop, on the contrary, in 1997 in Helsinki hosts Bill Clinton and Russian President Boris Yeltsin to discuss NATO's eastward enlargement. Meanwhile, diplomatic efforts continued on another front "hot": the war in Kosovo. Martii Ahtisaari in fact negotiates with Russian premier Viktor? ernomyrdin, an agreement with Slobodan Milosevic to end the war in the former Yugoslav Republic. In 2000, following the internal criticism about joining Finland to the European Union's monetary (considered by many too fast), Ahtisaari rejects the second candidacy, leaving room for Tarja Halonen who becomes the first woman President of the country. Once away from home policy Ahtisaari intensifies its international commitment. In 2000 is instructed by the British Government to inspect the disarming of the IRA, the paramilitary organization active in Northern Ireland. In 2005 together with the organization he founded, Crisis Management Initiative (CMI), managed to negotiate a truce between the free Aceh Movement (GAM) and the Indonesian Government, resulting in the withdrawal of government troops and surrender the independence of GAM. In the same year, the Secretary for the United Nations, Kofi Annan, appointed him Special Envoy to Kosovo, to determine the future shape of geopolitical region (under the UN administration since 1999). In recent years the Finnish diplomat draws up a plan that would have provided for the independence of Kosovo, partly controlled by the international community. However, Balkan media launch a fierce smear campaign against the roadmap, considered by Tom Casey, u.s. State Department spokesman, "the best solution". But in 2007, the EU, Russia and the United States decide to abandon the plan drafted by Ahtisaari, and the diplomatic review his resignation. The partial defeat in the former Yugoslav Republic, however, doesn't stop the political commitment by Ahtisaari. In the same year, leads a series of secret meetings in order to reach an agreement that could lead to peace between Sunnis and Shiites in Iraq. The award of the Nobel Peace Prize 2008 represents the culmination of thirty years of diplomatic career, aimed at resolving the thorniest international conflicts and often bloody-minded