Laurens Jan Brinkhorst (born 18 March 1937) is a retired Dutch politician and diplomat of the Democrats 66 (D66) party and jurist.

After the election of 1972 Brinkhorst was appointed as State Secretary for Foreign Affairs in the Cabinet Den Uyl, taking office on 19 December 1977.

The Cabinet Den Uyl fell on 22 March 1977 after four years of tensions in the coalition and continued to serve in a demissionary capacity.

Brinkhorst was appointed as Minister of Agriculture, Nature and Fisheries in the Cabinet Kok II following the resignation of Haijo Apotheker, taking office on 9 June 1999.

The Cabinet Kok II resigned on 16 April 2002 following the conclusions of the NIOD report into the Srebrenica massacre during the Bosnian War and continued to serve in a demissionary capacity.

[citation needed] After the election of 2003 Brinkhorst was appointed as Minister of Economic Affairs in the Cabinet Balkenende II, taking office on 27 May 2003.

Brinkhorst was also appointed as Deputy Prime Minister following the resignation of Thom de Graaf, taking office on 31 March 2005.

Brinkhorst, as well as Alexander Pechtold, resigned from his minister post after the second Balkenende cabinet lost the confidence of parliament on 29 June 2006.

[4] Brinkhorst retired after spending 33 years in national politics and became active in the public sector and occupied numerous seats as a nonprofit director on several boards of directors and supervisory boards (Institute of International Relations Clingendael, Energy Research Centre, Netherlands Atlantic Association, Nuclear Research and Consultancy Group, Organisation for Scientific Research, Institute for Advanced Study and the Society for Statistics and Operations Research) and served as a diplomat and lobbyist for several economic delegations on behalf of the government and as an advocate and activist for Human rights, European integration, Environmentalism, Sustainable development and Climate change.