Dr. Geir Lundestad is a Norwegian author and educator best known for his association with the Norwegian Nobel Institute, for which he serves as Director, and the Norwegian Nobel Committee, for which he serves as a permanent Secretary. In his work with the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Lundestad does not cast a vote for the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, but he is frequently a spokesperson for the committee.  He has worked at the Nobel Institute since 1990.

Lundestad earned a Ph.D. in history and held various professorships at the University of Tromsø before beginning his positions with the Norwegian Nobel Institute and Committee. Subsequently, he has been associated with the University of Oslo as an adjunct professor of International History. Lundestad spent several years in the United States as a research fellow, both at Harvard University and at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, D.C. 

Lundestad is a member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters.  His numerous publications include The American Empire and other Studies of U.S. Foreign Policy in Comparative Perspective (1990), The Fall of the Great Powers, Peace, Stability, and Legitimacy (1994), and Empire by Integration: The United States and European Integration, 1945-1997 (1998).  His East, West, North, South: Major Developments in International Politics since 1945 (6th edition, 2010) has been translated into many languages.