Edita Tahiri (born 29 July 1956) is a leader of the independence of Kosovo, the former deputy prime minister, minister of foreign affairs and peace negotiator. She was also minister for dialogue, minister of public administration and member of parliament in five terms. She was the chief negotiator of the Republic of Kosovo for seven years (2011-2017) in the EU facilitated dialogue, with US support, on normalization of neighborly relations with Serbia. | She was the Deputy Prime minister responsible for foreign policy and national security (2011–2014). She was the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kosovo for ten years in difficult time of liberation and independence of Kosovo (1991–2000). She is a signer of the Declaration of Independence of the Republic of Kosovo, on 17 February 2008. She is the President of reformist party, the Democratic Alternative of Kosovo (ADK) and Chair of the Regional Women's Lobby in Southeastern Europe (RWLSEE). She is member of the Women Waging Peace Network. and member of the Mediterranean Women's Mediators Network.
Tahiri is a Kosovan leader of independence and one of the main protagonists in the political changes affecting Kosovo and South Eastern Europe, after the end of the Cold War. She was one of the founders and key leaders of the movement for Kosovo's independence, the Democratic League of Kosovo, in the years 1991–1999. She was the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Republic of Kosovo (1991–2000) and is particularly well known in foreign policy and for her contribution to internationalizing the question of Kosovo and Albanians. She was part of the Kosovo delegation at the Rambouillet Peace Conference (1999) where she contributed to achieving the Rambouillet Agreement, which led to NATO intervention in Kosovo in 1999 and opened up the path to Kosovo's independence. She was also a negotiator for peace talks at earlier phases since the London Peace Conference on disintegration of former Yugoslavia in 1992.
Tahiri is a Harvard University graduate, and she holds a master's degree in public administration from the John F. Kennedy School for Government in 2002. | She also graduated in the Edward S. Mason program for Public Policy and Management, 2002. During her studies at Harvard, John F. Kennedy School Professor and Dean Joseph S. Nye was her tutor. For her academic achievements, she was awarded the title "Outstanding student of 2002" by the John Kennedy School of Government Public Service Fellowship and an "Edward S. Mason Appreciation for an Extraordinary Contribution".
She holds a doctoral degree in political sciences from University of Pristina in cooperation with Johns Hopkins University SAIS in Washington DC, in 2011. Her thesis focuses on the international involvement to help statebuilding in postwar countries with special focus on the case study of Kosovo, under a mentorship of well known American professors I. William Zartman and Alan Kuperman. She was also a Fulbright Scholar in the years 2006–2007 at the Johns Hopkins University – SAIS University, where she did doctoral studies in the Program for Conflict Resolution.
Tahiri held senior political and state responsibilities during the hard times of Kosovo's occupation and liberation war against Serbia. With her political philosophy of freedom, democracy and self-determination, she was committed to ensuring that genocide would never again occur against her people. As well as being Minister of Foreign Affairs, she also held other positions such as: Member of the Presidency of the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) from 1991 to 1998; Secretary for External Relations in LDK (1991–1998), Member of parliament of the Republic of Kosovo Parliament (1992–1998; 1998–2000; 2001–2004; 2007–2010), Special Emissary for President Rugova, Head of the Commission for Foreign Affairs in the Kosovo Assembly (1998–2000) and many other positions. She was the spiritual leader of the Women's Forum in LDK and coordinator of Women's Forum from the Presidency of LDK (1991–1998) and also the founder of the Kosovo Center for International Studies (1994).