Carl Bildt has served as both Prime Minister (1991–1994) and Foreign Minister (2006–2014) of Sweden.

During the first period, his government initiated major liberal economic reforms, as well as negotiated and signed membership agreement with the European Union. The reform period in the early and mid-1990s is generally seen as having paved the way for the successful growth decades that followed.

Subsequently he served in international functions with the EU and UN, primarily related to the conflicts in the Balkans. He was Co-Chairman of the Dayton peace talks on Bosnia and became the first High Representative in the country. Later, he was the Special Envoy of UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to the region.

Carl Bildt was an early advocate of the new ICT technologies. An 1994 email exchange between him and President Clinton was the first between heads of states/governments.

Returning as Minister of Foreign Affairs in 2006, he came to be seen as one of the most prominent and vocal European foreign ministers during those years. He was one of the initiators of EU’s Eastern Partnership, and pushed the EU forward also on issues of the Middle East.

Currently he is Co-Chair of the European Council on Foreign Relations, contributing columnist to Washington Post as well as monthly columnist for Project Syndicate.