Thorbjørn Jagland (né Thorbjørn Johansen) is a Norwegian politician for the Labour Party, and the Secretary-General of the Council of Europe. The President of the Storting since 2005, Jagland served as the Prime Minister of Norway from 1996 to 1997, and later as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2000 to 2001. Prior to becoming Prime Minister, Jagland served as party secretary from 1986 to 1992, and subsequently party leader until 2002, when he was succeeded by Jens Stoltenberg. In 2009, he became Chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee. He did not run for reelection to parliament in 2009.

Early Life: Thorbjørn Jagland was born on 5 November 1950 in Drammen and is the son of a welder, Helge Th. Jagland, and a cook, Ingrid Bjerknes. The family was originally named Johansen, but in the early 1950s, they changed their name to Jagland, a new constructed surname that appeared in a book published in the late 1940 which aimed at helping people find new surnames instead of patronyms, which had long been associated with the working class. Thorbjørn Jagland reached a higher status in society with his new name and has been the first one in ancestry to go to university.

Education: Jagland....studied briefly at the University of Oslo, whence he graduated with a one-year degree in Economics in 1975.

Early Career: He started his political career in the Workers' Youth League, and served as national leader from 1977 to 1981.

But All Was Not Smooth Sailing: Jagland also sat in Buskerud county council from 1975 to 1983. Jagland's cabinet, albeit short-lived, was marked by controversies from the beginning to the end, with two ministers being forced withdraw following personal scandals. Jagland, who was also ridiculed for his quotes and statements, resigned following the 1997 election, even though his party won the most votes.

Resistible Rise: On 23 October 1996, Gro Harlem Brundtland informed Jagland she was withdrawing from politics and leaving him as head of government. The third cabinet Brundtland resigned, prompting the party leader Jagland to form a new cabinet. When asked if Brundtland was sure about Jagland, he replied, "Yes. I note that I have been elected unanimously five times in the Labour Party's national congress, and that I have had all the political offices possible to obtain in a country."

Jagland Has His Big Idea --The "Norwegian House": The tenure of Jagland's cabinet was marked by controversies. Minister of Planning Terje Rød Larsen was forced to resign after 35 days, after it was learned he had failed to pay all his taxes after receiving an option pay-out in 1986. Jagland, and Rød Larsen's successor, Bendik Rugaas, were widely ridiculed for their visions about "the Norwegian House". This was a metaphor Jagland illustrated to present his vision of Norway. In his speech to the Storting following his appointed, Jagland described the Norwegian House as a foundation with four pillars. The foundation represented, "the collective value creation within the ecologically sustainable society". The four pillars that hold up the house were business and labour policy; welfare policy; research and educational policy; and foreign and security policy. Jagland stated that everyone had something to contribute regarding the creation of the house; in particular he stated that the cabinet would cooperate with the opposition to reach these goals. In his speech, Jagland said that he would not deviate much from Harlem Bruntland's policies, but that he would increase the focus on violence, abuse of alcohol and drugs, and crime, including improvement of preventative measures and the courts. He also stated that it was important to introduce information technology in all parts of the education system. As part of the construction of the Norwegian House, the cabinet also started to appoint lay councils, with expertese within their fields, that would provide them with feedback and inputs on important areas in society. Jagland stated that the purpose was to allow critical voices close access to the political decisions, and increase the number of ideas generated at a political level. Jagland stated in August 2008 that, "the Norwegian House could have been better planned and prepared, but I did not have the time. I took a chance. The Labour Party was down for the count. My goal was to make a good election; and we did. We have not done so well since". Jagland said in an interview, "I still get letters from people who miss the Norwegian House. It was an attempt at something new, a building project that would also inspire the activity on the side of the parties."

There were scandals: Minister of Petroleum and Energy Grete Faremo resigned following the secret police investigation of Berge Furre, which occurred during her period as Minister of Justice.

But Foreigners Were Impressed With Jagland: In August, a former Soviet spy described Jagland as a friendly politician during the 1970s and 80s. Jagland said he held diplomatic talks with the Soviet unions and that all the conversations were innocent exchanges between them. He was classified as a "confidential contact" by the Committee for State Security (KGB). In 1996, Yasser Arafat, President of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), visited Norway for two days.

He Was Known For His Loyalty: With the announcement of the new government, Jagland chose not to renew the term of Martin Kolberg as state secretary at the Office of the Prime Minister. Kolberg, a childhood friend of Jagland, reacted with anger and frustration, and the media portrayed the matter as Jagland firing his best friend. Jagland said, "Martin had wanted to work for Gro [Harlem Brundtland]" ... I really wanted him to work as party secretary". Regarding Kolberg's reaction, Jagland said, "I followed an agreement between us, and I though he did not want the job. I am very surprised by his reaction." Five days later, Kolberg was appointed state secretary in the Ministry of Defence.

In 2008, former prime minister Gro Harlem Brundtland called Jagland "stupid" because of his lack of tactical judgment during the election. He responded by saying, "I am glad I am who I am, and I would never describe another person in those terms."

Jagland said that in the elections he would have to obtain 36.9% of the vote - the same percentage that his predecessor had obtained. But [a]s it turned out, Labour only received 35.0%.

And Jagland resigned.

After the 1997 election, a power struggle developed within the Labour Party, with Stoltenberg seeking to become the new party leader. Labour had lost much of its political power to Kjell Magne Bondevik and his cabinet. In 1998, Jagland made several now-famous statements that were met with ridicule, including, "We will come again, yes, we are here already", and "We put the foot down and stand on it."

After several years of strife, the power struggle was essentially concluded in 2000, when Stoltenberg became the party's prime minister candidate and Jagland settled as Minister of Foreign Affairs.

The Incident of the Breasts: In 1998, Jagland was confronted with another incident, after placing his hands on Synnøve Svabø's breasts on national television. Svabø was at that time talk show host for Weekend Globoid. Two years later, she was prosecuted for adultery against Jagland by the Labour-politician Gaute Hareide from Ulsteinvik. Svabø replied to here prosecution "Am I accused for the Jagland-grip? I had considered an accusation, but not three years afterwards. And not against me ... I was innocent". The police dropped the case shortly afterwards. It was seen by many at that time that Svabø "lured" Jagland.

Workers' Youth league membership scandal

Also in 1998, four leaders and treasurers of Oslo AUF were convicted of fraud and jailed as part of the Workers' Youth League membership scandal. They were found to have filed excessive membership numbers in order to receive increased municipal grants, and the court case revealed that most youth parties and their leaders had been engaging in this practice since the 1970s. Jagland testified in the case and said it was not necessarily wrong to "advance" money for memberships, provided the members in question reimburse this fee later on. But he did testify that it was unacceptable to transfer money from AUF's main bank account to pay for membership fees. When pressed by the prosecutor, he also agreed that membership numbers were too high when he was the leader of AUF. In his defense, he said if AUF were to follow the law too rigidly, they would only have ended up with a quarter of the membership numbers that the Norwegian Young Conservatives operated with. Jagland has later said to the court that AUF should have received even more subsidies, referring to some of the other political youth parties that used similar methods for calculating membership numbers.

The "Bongo From Congo" Affair: A new Labour cabinet, to be led by Jens Stoltenberg, was announced by King Harald V on 17 March 2000; although Jagland was still party leader at the time, he was passed over for the Prime Minister candidacy, and instead settled for Minister of Foreign Affairs. Jagland again made national headlines in a similar fashion to the publicity about "The Norwegian House" and "36.9%", this time for the phrase "Bongo from Congo". Jagland stated on 2 February 2001 on the nationally broadcast television show I kveld med Per Ståle on TV 2 that "everybody at the Foreign Department went around saying that 'now you are going to meet with Bongo from Congo'." The term "Bongo" and "Congo" has been seen by many as a racial slur which tended to conjure mental imagery of African savagery.

Accusations Against Australia Reported by Norway To The U.N. and The Red Crescent: When Jagland was Foreign Minister Norway reported Australia to the United Nations for refusing to allow a ship full of Afghans to enter Australian territory. Jagland, who said of the matter, "our opinion is that international law is on our side," reported Australia to the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement.

Last, and not at all least:

From 2000 to 2006, he [Jagland] chaired the Socialist International Committee on the Middle East, and he has outspokenly opposed the perceived presence of islamophobia in Western societies.

There. That's Thorbjørn Jagland, as of this year the head of the five-member Norwegian Nobel Committee that, on October 10, awarded the Nobel Peace Prize to Barack Obama.

Make of him, and that award, what you will.