Zvonimir Frka-Petešić is a senior Croatian diplomat and has served as Chief of Staff to the Prime Minister of the Republic of Croatia since 2017. Following earlier service in Paris, he was Spokesperson of the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Croatia to the European Union in Brussels during Croatia's accession negotiations with the European Union. He subsequently served as Director of the Directorate for Support to the Accession Process and Head of the Public Diplomacy Service at the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs. He later became Ambassador of the Republic of Croatia to the Kingdom of Morocco, with non-resident accreditation to several West African countries, from Tunisia and Senegal to Gabon.
He was educated in Paris, where he was born in 1969. After initial studies in mathematics and physics, he went on to study geography and earned a Master's degree in geopolitics at the French Institute of Geopolitics of the University of Paris VIII, under the supervision of Yves Lacoste, founder of the French school of geopolitics. His academic work focused on the cartographic analysis of the wars in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, an approach that shaped his enduring interest in territory, borders and relations of power.
He has edited several publications devoted to Croatia's European integration. He is the co-author of the book Croatia in 30 Stories, published in Croatian, English, French and German, and the initiator and editor of the multilingual publication Croatia, the Land and Its People, together with the accompanying nine-language platform croatia.eu.
His fields of interest include geopolitics, energy, demography, climate change, technology, natural sciences, history and national identity. He is a member of the European Council on Foreign Relations and serves on the board of the Club of Venice, a network of European experts in communication and public diplomacy.
Throughout his career he has contributed to the work, coordination and leadership of numerous inter-ministerial bodies and advisory formats involved in shaping public policy, as well as to the coordination of major strategic processes at both national and European levels, including in the fields of security and defence, digital transformation, the monetary system and international relations.
He is the author of numerous geopolitical maps published in academic works and international media. He has been awarded the rank of Grand Officer of the Order of the Ouissam Alaouite of the Kingdom of Morocco.