Artis Pabriks is a Latvia

Latvia

Latvia , officially the Republic of Latvia , is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by Estonia , to the south by Lithuania , to the east by the Russian Federation , to the southeast by Belarus and shares maritime borders to the west with Sweden...

n politician, a former Foreign Minister of Latvia and the current Minister of Defence of Latvia.

Artis Pabriks has a degree in history from University of Latvia

University of Latvia

University of Latvia is a university located in Riga, Latvia. Being established in 1919, University of Latvia is the biggest university in the Baltic states.-History:...

 (1992) and a Ph.D. in political science from University of Aarhus

University of Aarhus

Aarhus University , located in the city of Aarhus, Denmark, is Denmark's second oldest and second largest university...

, Denmark

Denmark

Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...

 (1996). After finishing his Ph.D., he became the rector

Rector

The word rector has a number of different meanings; it is widely used to refer to an academic, religious or political administrator...

 of Vidzemes augstskola, a newly founded regional college located in Valmiera

Valmiera

Valmiera is the largest city of the historical Vidzeme region, Latvia, with a total area of 18.1 km². It is the center of the Valmiera District. As of 2002, Valmiera had a population of 27,323, and in 2008 – 27,569....

, Latvia

Latvia

Latvia , officially the Republic of Latvia , is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by Estonia , to the south by Lithuania , to the east by the Russian Federation , to the southeast by Belarus and shares maritime borders to the west with Sweden...

. He has taught at Vidzemes Augstskola since then. He has co-authored one book: Latvia: Challenge of Change (2001), which was subsequently re-published together with volumes on Lithuania and Estonia under the title The Baltic States: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania (2002). Both were published by Routledge

Routledge

Routledge is a British publishing house which has operated under a succession of company names and latterly as an academic imprint. Its origins may be traced back to the 19th-century London bookseller George Routledge...

.

Pabriks joined politics as one of founding members of Tautas Partija (People's Party) in 1998 and became a member of Saeima

Saeima

Saeima is the parliament of the Republic of Latvia. It is a unicameral parliament consisting of 100 members who are elected by proportional representation, with seats allocated to political parties which gain at least 5% of the popular vote. Elections are scheduled to be held once every four years,...

, the Latvian parliament in March 2004. He was appointed the Foreign Minister on July 21, 2004, and he resigned from that position in October 2007 due to disagreements with the leaders of Tautas Partija which he then left in November.

Artis Pabriks was one of founding members of the Society for Other Politics

Society for Other Politics

The Society for Political Change , abbreviated to SCP, was a social liberal political party in Latvia founded on 6 September 2008. Its members include two former ministers, former foreign minister Artis Pabriks and former economics minister Aigars Štokenbergs; its first president was economist...

in September 2008.

He was a visiting professor at Bosphorus (Boğaziçi) University in Istanbul lecturing for 2009-2010 academic year I semester.

External links

• PABRIKS, Artis International Who's Who. accessed September 1, 2006.
• Pabriks A. Occupational representation and ethnic discrimination in Latvia — Rīga: Nordik, 2002. ISBN 9984-675-78-5