Jean-Marie Guéhenno

Arnold A. Saltzman Professor of Professional Practice in International and Public Affairs

Director, Center for International Conflict Resolution (CICR)

International Affairs Building, Room 1325

212-851-5952

jg3083@columbia.edu

http://www.un.org/News/ossg/sg/stories/guehenno_bio.asp

Jean-Marie Guéhenno is the Arnold A. Saltzman Professor of Professional Practice at the Arnold A. Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies at Columbia University, the Director of SIPA's Center for International Conflict Resolution (CICR),  and a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution.  He was recently appointed by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon to chair the newly created Senior Advisory Group for the Review of International Civilian Capacities at the United Nations.  He is also currently involved in several projects related to human rights, good governance, and security, advising governments as well as international organizations and non-governmental organizations.  Guéhenno is also working with the Open Society Institute on the Democratic Republic of the Congo, advising the World Bank on post-conflict strategies and fragile states, and advising on international security issues in the context of the Global Redesign Initiative of the World Economic Forum.  He currently serves as the Chairperson of the Advisory Board of the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) and is a member of the board of the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue in Geneva.

As the Under-Secretary-General for peacekeeping operations from 2000 to 2008, Guéhenno became the longest-serving head of peacekeeping and leader of the largest peacekeeping expansion in the history of the United Nations.  In this role, Guéhenno oversaw a budget of seven billion dollars and supported the deployment of about 110,000 personnel in 18 different operations.  Guéhenno has been at the forefront of efforts to address the conflicts of Africa, from the Democratic Republic of the Congo to Darfur, as well as the new strategic challenges, from Afghanistan to Kosovo and Georgia. 

Before joining the United Nations, Guéhenno had a distinguished career in the French Government and in the private sector.  He was the director of policy planning in the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 1989 to 1993 and was directly involved in the critical decisions that shaped the post-Cold War order.  Appointed French ambassador to the Western European Union, Guéhenno helped lay the foundations of a renewed European defense effort.  As the chairman of the French Institute of Higher Defense Studies from 1998 to 2000, he focused his efforts on strengthening relations between the defense community and the broader public.

Guéhenno has a legal and management experience gained as a senior auditor and judge of the Court of Audit of France, where he oversaw major defense programs and financial institutions. During that time, he was seconded to the Banque de l’Union Europeenne, where he served on the executive committee of the bank. Mr. Guéhenno is a member of the Paris Bar.

Guéhenno has also taught extensively, including as a professor at the Institut d’Etudes Politiques of Paris and at the Ecole nationale d’Administration.  He is officier de la legion d’honneur and has the commander’s cross of the German order of merit.  He speaks English and French.

Guéhenno is a graduate of the Ecole Normale Superieure, the Institut d’Eudes Politiques, and the Ecole Nationale d’Administration (ENA).

Selected Publications

“Le Conseil de Sécurité au XXIème siècle: un rôle en mutation.” Tocqueville Review (2009).

L’Avenir de la Liberté (Flammarion, 1999).

“The Impact of Globalisation on Strategy.” Survival: Global Politics and Strategy (Winter 1998/1999).

The End of the Nation-State (Minnesota University Press, 1993).

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