João Gomes Cravinho, born in Lisbon, Portugal, in 1964, was appointed European Union Special Representative for the Sahel from 1 December 2024. He served in the Government of Portugal as Minister of Foreign Affairs from March 2022 to April 2024, and Minister of National Defence from October 2018 to March 2022.
Previously to that he served as Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation from March 2005 to June 2011, and as Ambassador of the European Union to India from December 2011 to July 2015 and to Brazil from August 2015 to October 2018.
He has a doctorate (D.Phil) in Politics from the University of Oxford, and undergraduate and Master’s degrees from the London School of Economics. As an academic, at the University of Coimbra, he co-founded the degree in International Relations, and he has also taught at the Universidade Nova and at ISCTE.
Up to 2005 he also worked as a consultant for the European Commission, the World Bank and the Gulbenkian Foundation. He is the author of numerous publications, and a book entitled "Visões do Mundo" (Visions of the World) published in 2002. Dr Cravinho teaches a Master’s course at Sciences Po (Paris) on European defence and is on the board of the European Council of Foreign Relations (ECFR) and of the Centro Brasileiro de Relações Internacionais (CEBRI).