Jean-Marie Guéhenno (; born 30 October 1949 in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

) is a former French diplomat. Guéhenno served as the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...

Under-Secretary-General An under-secretary-general of the United Nations (USG) is a senior official within the United Nations System, normally appointed by the General Assembly on the recommendation of the secretary-general for a renewable term of four years. Under-s ...

for

Peacekeeping Operations Peacekeeping comprises activities intended to create conditions that favour lasting peace. Research generally finds that peacekeeping reduces civilian and battlefield deaths, as well as reduces the risk of renewed warfare. Within the United N ...

from 2000 to August 2008. He was elected Chairman of the Henri Dunant Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue (HD) board at the end of 2010. From March to July 2012, he temporarily stood down from the board to serve as Deputy Joint Special Envoy of the United Nations and the League of Arab States on Syria. He resumed his role as a Member and Chairman of the HD Centre Board in November 2012. In 2012-13, Guéhenno headed President François Hollande's review of French defense and security policies. He was director of the Center for International Conflict Resolution at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

School of International and Public Affairs The School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University (SIPA) is the international affairs and public policy school of Columbia University, a private Ivy League university located in Morningside Heights, Manhattan, New York City. It ...

. He also served as associate director of the Arnold A. Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies at SIPA and directed the School's International Conflict Resolution specialization. He was named president and CEO of

International Crisis Group The International Crisis Group (ICG; also known as the Crisis Group) is a transnational non-profit, non-governmental organisation founded in 1995. It is a think tank, used by policymakers and academics, performing research and analysis on global ...

in August 2014, succeeding

Louise Arbour Louise Bernice Arbour (born February 10, 1947) is a Canadian lawyer, prosecutor and jurist. Arbour was the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, a former justice of the Supreme Court of Canada and the Court of Appeal for Ontario and a former C ...

. In 2021, Guehenno returned to

as the inaugural Kent Visiting Professor of Conflict Resolution. He is also a non-resident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.

Biography

Guéhenno is the son of the French teacher, editor and writer

Jean Guéhenno Jean Guéhenno born Marcel-Jules-Marie Guéhenno (25 March 1890 – 22 September 1978) was a French essayist, writer and literary critic. Life and career Jean Guéhenno, writer and educator, was a prominent contributor to the NRF. He was edito ...

, author of the Occupation memoir ''Journal des Années Noires'' and a biography of

Jean-Jacques Rousseau Jean-Jacques Rousseau (, ; 28 June 1712 – 2 July 1778) was a Genevan philosopher, writer, and composer. His political philosophy influenced the progress of the Age of Enlightenment throughout Europe, as well as aspects of the French Revolu ...

, among other works. His mother, Annie Guéhenno, was a member of the Resistance during the Second World War and a writer. Guéhenno attended the

École Normale Supérieure École may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * École, Savoi ...

, before going to the

École Nationale d'Administration The École nationale d'administration (generally referred to as ENA, en, National School of Administration) was a French ''grande école'', created in 1945 by President of France, President Charles de Gaulle and principal author of the Constitu ...

. He was then a member of the

Cour des Comptes The ''Cour des Comptes'' ("Court of Accounts") is France's supreme audit institution, under French law an administrative court. As such, it is independent from the legislative and executive branches of the French Government. However, the 1946 and ...

in Paris. He has also worked in international relations and diplomacy, directing the French Policy Planning Staff from 1989 to 1993, chairing the

Institut des hautes études de défense nationale The ''Institut des hautes études de défense nationale'' (IHEDN) (Institute of Advanced Studies in National Defence) is a French public academic institution for research, education and promotion of expertise and sensitization towards defence matte ...

from 1998 to 2000 and working with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in France before he joined the UN. Guéhenno served as United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations from 2000 to 2008. He led the largest expansion of peacekeeping in the history of the UN, overseeing approximately 130,000 staff, on 18 missions. Guéhenno is an officer of the ''

Légion d'honneur The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon ...

'' and a commander of the ''

Bundesverdienstkreuz The Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (german: Verdienstorden der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, or , BVO) is the only federal decoration of Germany. It is awarded for special achievements in political, economic, cultural, intellect ...

''. . He is married and has one daughter.

Other activities

Carnegie Corporation of New York The Carnegie Corporation of New York is a philanthropic fund established by Andrew Carnegie in 1911 to support education programs across the United States, and later the world. Carnegie Corporation has endowed or otherwise helped to establis ...

, Member of the Board of Trustees (since 2020) *

Brookings Institution The Brookings Institution, often stylized as simply Brookings, is an American research group founded in 1916. Located on Think Tank Row in Washington, D.C., the organization conducts research and education in the social sciences, primarily in ec ...

, Distinguished Fellow *

European Council on Foreign Relations The European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) is a pan-European think tank with offices in seven European capitals. Launched in October 2007, it conducts research on European foreign and security policy and provides a meeting space for decisi ...

(ECFR), Member *

World Economic Forum The World Economic Forum (WEF) is an international non-governmental and lobbying organisation based in Cologny, canton of Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded on 24 January 1971 by German engineer and economist Klaus Schwab. The foundation, ...

(WEF), Member of the Global Future Council on the Future of International Security *

(WEF), Member of the Europe Policy Group (since 2017)Europe Policy Group

Publications

Guéhenno has published articles in many newspapers and magazines, including "The Impact of Globalisation on Strategy" in the International Institute for Strategic Studies' Survival, and "Globalisation and the International System" in the Journal of Democracy, as well as articles or chapters in Internationale Politik, Prospect, Paradoxes of European Foreign Policy, and Strategic Analysis. He is the author of The End of Democracy (1993, in French) and The Fog of Peace (2015).

Bibliography

* ''La fin de la démocratie'' Paris, Flammarion, 1993 ; re-edited by ''Champs'' in 1999, ; published in English as
The End of the Nation-State
', Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Press, 2000, 160 pages, * ''L'avenir de la liberté - La démocratie dans la mondialisation'' ("The Future of Freedom - Democracy in Globalisation"), Paris, Flammarion, 1999, 222 pages, *

Jocelyn Coulon Jocelyn Coulon (born May 22, 1957) is an author, columnist, journalist, political analyst, and an international research expert in Quebec, Canada. He is well known for authoring various military and other international-related works. Coulon ran ...

, Jean-Marie Guéhenno, Lucien Manokou, Catherine Délice, ''Guide du maintien de la paix'', Paris, Athéna éditions, 2006, 294 pages, *
The Fog of Peace
' New York, Brookings, 2015, 331 pages,

References

External links

"Crisis Group Announces Next President"
web site of

Jean-Marie Guéhenno: "An International Force Can Never Impose Peace"
Interview by Philippe Bolopion in ''

Le Monde ''Le Monde'' (; ) is a French daily afternoon newspaper. It is the main publication of Le Monde Group and reported an average circulation of 323,039 copies per issue in 2009, about 40,000 of which were sold abroad. It has had its own website si ...

'', translated into English and hosted by the

Global Policy Forum The Global Policy Forum (GPF) is an international non-governmental organization founded in December 1993 and based in New York and Bonn (Global Policy Forum Europe). � The aim of the Global Policy Forum is to critically accompany and analyze devel ...

. {{DEFAULTSORT:Guehenno, Jean Marie Commanders Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Living people 1949 births École nationale d'administration alumni Chevaliers of the Légion d'honneur French diplomats Columbia School of International and Public Affairs faculty Center on International Cooperation Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs