The term was coined by Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt in a debate against the opposition leader Ingvar Carlsson 1994.

Nils Daniel Carl Bildt KCMG ( born 15 July 1949 ) is a Swedish politician and diplomat who was Prime Minister of Sweden from 1991 to 1994 and leader of the liberal conservative Moderate Party from 1986 to 1999.

Bildt was born in Halmstad, Halland, and belongs to an old Norwegian-Danish-Swedish noble family traditionally domiciled in Bohus county.

His great-grandfather, General Knut Bildt, was chief of the Swedish General Staff.

His great-grandfather's brother Carl Bildt served in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as Cabinet-Secretary ( Under secretary of state of foreign affairs, in Swedish kabinettssekreterare ) and was a renowned diplomat and member of the Swedish Academy.

Bildt's grandfather Nils Bildt was a colonel and chief of the Halland Regiment.

Bildt's father Daniel Bildt ( 1920 – 2010 ) was a former major in the reserves of the now defunct Halland Regiment ( Hallands regemente ) and a former bureau director in the now defunct Civil Defense Board's Education Bureau.

Bildt himself was married to Kerstin Zetterberg 1974 – 1975, Mia Bohman ( daughter of former Moderate party leader and Minister of Economy, Gösta Bohman ) 1984 – 1997 and is currently married to Anna Maria Corazza since 1998.

While studying at Stockholm University, Bildt was against the occupation of the Student Union Building in 1968 and was one of the co-founders of Borgerliga Studenter – Opposition ' 68 later the same year.

Bildt was elected leader of the Moderate Party in 1986, succeeding Ulf Adelsohn.

The Social Democrats ' volte face on possible accession to the EEC was most likely a prerequisite for the positive referendum result ) and Bildt signed the accession treaty at the European Union summit of Corfu, Greece, on 23 June 1994.

Bildt and Richard Holbrooke before peace talks in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina in October 1995. After his term as Prime Minister, Bildt was active as a mediator in the Balkans conflict, serving as the European Union Special Envoy to Former Yugoslavia from June 1995, Co-Chairman of the Dayton Peace Conference in November 1995, and High Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina from December 1995 to June 1997 immediately after the Bosnian War.

Bildt is or has been considered persona non grata in several countries for remarks he has made against various governments, including Croatia, where he " lost the credibility necessary for the role of a peace mediator " by suggesting that the former President of Croatia, Franjo Tuđman, was as guilty of war crimes as the Krajina Serb leader Milan Martić.

On 6 October 2006, Bildt was appointed as Minister of Foreign Affairs in the newly formed government led by Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt.

This was seen by many as a somewhat surprising move, because Bildt had already served both as Prime Minister and as leader of the Moderate Party and the previous conflict between Bildt and Reinfeldt.

Carl Bildt joined the Board of Directors of Lundin Oil AB in 2000, after serious concerns had surfaced that the oil industry was exacerbating the war in Sudan.

Bildt was also a member of the board of independent oil company Lundin Petroleum.

Following the early release of convicted war criminal Biljana Plavšić from Swedish prison in 2009, Bildt was reported to Swedens Committee on the Constitution for being disqualified to take part in such a decision.

Bildt was accused of being personally involved in the case and being personally close to Plavšić.

The Russian reaction was strong, and the Russian Foreign Ministry announced that Bildt was no longer considered welcome in Moscow.

Bildt has also been noted internationally as a mediator in the Balkan conflict, serving as the European Union's Special Envoy to the Former Yugoslavia from June 1995, co-chairman of the Dayton Peace Conference in November 1995 and as High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina from December 1995 to June 1997 immediately after the Bosnian War.

Carl Bildt also shown his commitment with the European Union project by joining the Young European Federalistsand later becoming vice president of the Swedish section.

Carl Söderbergh, Secretary General for the Swedish section of Amnesty International, has also criticized Bildt since Human Rights issues are within the portfolio of the Minister for Foreign Affairs.

Bildt has also been questioned for his role as a member of the International Advisory Council of the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq, a group with ties to the Bush administration pushing for an invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Bildt also called South Ossetian independence " a joke ", and said it would be supported only by a " miserable " lot of countries.

Bildt was also described as someone who thinks he has more power and influence than he really has and called him a " medium size dog with big dog attitude ".

Bildt also maintains a personal Twitter feed in English with approximately 125, 000 subscribed followers.

Bildt is also a member of the Club of Madrid, an independent non-profit organization composed of 87 democratic former Presidents and Prime Ministers from 57 different countries.

For linguistic reasons, the outlying and insular dialects of Midsland ( Terschelling ), Ameland, Het Bildt, and Kollum are also sometimes tied to Stadsfries.

Bildt has been criticized due to the potential conflict of interest due to his previous position in Vostok Nafta, although Bildt could not divest the stock options he has until the first two weeks of December 2006.

Carl Bildt has been criticized for his role as mediator in the Bosnian war.

Bildt opposed any military intervention and criticized the former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in 1993 for calling NATO to intervene against the Bosnian Serb forces, which led to the Sunday Times calling Bildt and other EU leaders " robotic political pygmies " and their acceptance of the ongoing genocide " shameful ".

The New York Times criticized Bildt for a nonchalant attitude towards the Srebrenica massacre where over 8, 000 Bosniaks were killed, and described him as being burdened with a reputation for accepting Bosnian Serb claims of good behavior at face value and overlooking evidence of atrocities against civilians.

Several international governments criticized Bildt for having been ineffective and too closely affiliated with the Serbs in Bosnia and Serbia.

Following the defeat of the Bildt government in the Swedish general election of 1994, Reinfeldt publicly criticized the Moderate Party leader, whom he believed had gotten too much dominance in the party.

** Carl Bildt, Swedish Minister for Foreign Affairs, former Prime Minister of Sweden

Bildt became a Member of Parliament in 1979, although he instead served as State Secretary for Policy Coordination in the non-socialist government reformed after that election.

The opposition parties and other politicians as well as newspaper columnists have questioned Carl Bildt ’ s suitability as Sweden ’ s Foreign Minister for his private stance on international issues as well as his private affairs as a businessman with interest in Russian gas giant Gazprom, and Lundin Petroleum, an oil company with activities in war-torn Sudan.

However, the criticism against Bildt for his interests subsided after he announced his intentions of divesting himself of all financial ties with the company as soon as is possible.

The work by the Constitutional Committee of the Parliament could not find any grounds for questioning the activities of Bildt in these regards.

Following Bildt's appointment as EU's special envoy to Yugoslavia, Tom Warrick from the Coalition for International Justice described Bildt as " dangerously misinformed about his own job description " and largely ignorant about the region.

After the 2008 South Ossetia war, Bildt wrote on his blog that the Russian rationale for its intervention, i. e. concern for the welfare of its expatriates in the Near Abroad, had certain similarities with the rationale for the annexation of Sudetenland.