Social dialog and the Nordic welfare model – IREL Talks

Karin Lovisa Wallensteen is a career diplomat with more than twenty years of experience in the Swedish Government. She has been based in Brasília since August 2022. Between 2016 and 2022 she worked at the Office of the Prime Minister where she performed, for three years, the role of State Secretary for International Affairs and the Security Policy Council (2019–2022); and where she was Director for International Affairs (2016–2019), advising the Prime Minister on a wide range of foreign and security policy issues.

She has been employed by the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs since 2003. After completing the diplomatic training programme, Karin Wallensteen has had different functions within the Ministry, especially in security policy. She has also been Counsellor at the Swedish Embassy in Ethiopia (2013–2016). Her first post as a diplomat outside of Sweden was at the Swedish Embassy in Brasília (2004–2006). Before entering the diplomatic career, she worked as a Political Advisor at the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries (1998–2002) and at the Ministry of Labour (1998).

Karin Wallensteen holds a BA in Political Science from Uppsala University as well as a degree in journalism from the University of Gothenburg. She also studied at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. She is married and has a son and a daughter.