Feith, 63, started his career at age 25 at the ministry of Foreign Affairs. He worked at the Dutch embassies of Syria, Germany and Sudan, at the United Nations headquarters in New York and at NATO in Brussels. In 2004 he represented E.U. in Darfur and prepared an E.U.-mission in Iraq that trained police-officials and judges. A year later Feith was in charge of the E.U. operation in Aceh and supervised the peace negotiations between the Indonesian government and the rebels.