John Gerard Ruggie (18 October 1944 – 16 September 2021) was the Berthold Beitz Research Professor in

Human Rights Human rights are Morality, moral principles or Social norm, normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for ce ...

and International Affairs at

Harvard Kennedy School The Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), officially the John F. Kennedy School of Government, is the school of public policy and government of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The school offers master's degrees in public policy, public ...

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

and an affiliated professor in international legal studies at

Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States. Each class ...

. He was an influential scholar in the field of international relations, as well as an influential policy-maker in 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 ...

. In the field of international relations, Ruggie made contributions to international regimes, constructivism, epistemes, multilateralism, and embedded liberalism. His 1982 article on

Embedded Liberalism Embedded liberalism is a term in international political economy for the global economic system and the associated international political orientation as they existed from the end of World War II to the 1970s. The system was set up to support a c ...

is the most widely cited article in international political economy.

Early life and education

Ruggie was born in

Graz Graz (; sl, Gradec) is the capital city of the Austrian state of Styria and second-largest city in Austria after Vienna. As of 1 January 2021, it had a population of 331,562 (294,236 of whom had principal-residence status). In 2018, the popul ...

, Austria in 1944 and raised in Toronto, Canada. He had a BA in politics and history from

McMaster University McMaster University (McMaster or Mac) is a public research university in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. The main McMaster campus is on of land near the residential neighbourhoods of Ainslie Wood and Westdale, adjacent to the Royal Botanical Ga ...

in Canada. Ruggie moved to the United States to attend graduate school, earning a PhD in

political science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and la ...

from the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

. At Berkeley, Ruggie was influenced by

Ernst B. Haas Ernst Bernard Haas (1924 – March 6, 2003) was a German-American political scientist who made numerous contributions to theoretical discussions in the field of international relations. He was a leading authority on international relations the ...

Career

Academic appointments

Ruggie taught 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 ...

, becoming Dean of the

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 taught at the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Francisco, ...

Berkeley Berkeley most often refers to: *Berkeley, California, a city in the United States **University of California, Berkeley, a public university in Berkeley, California * George Berkeley (1685–1753), Anglo-Irish philosopher Berkeley may also refer ...

and

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the List of United States cities by population, eigh ...

campuses and directed the UC system-wide Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation. He joined

's faculty in 2001.

United Nations work

From 1997 to 2001, Ruggie served as United Nations Assistant Secretary-General for Strategic Planning, a post created specifically for him by then Secretary-General Kofi Annan. He was one of the architects of the

United Nations Global Compact The United Nations Global Compact is a non-binding United Nations pact to encourage businesses and firms worldwide to adopt sustainable and socially responsible policies, and to report on their implementation. The UN Global Compact is a princ ...

as well as of the Millennium Development Goals, the precursor of the Sustainable Development Goals. In 2001 Annan and the UN as a whole were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for, among other achievements, "bringing new life to the organization." In 2005, Annan appointed Ruggie as the UN Secretary-General's Special Representative for Business and Human Rights. In that capacity, he developed a set of principles, the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, which the UN Human Rights Council endorsed unanimously in 2011. They are also known as the "Ruggie principles" or the "Ruggie framework". The Guiding Principles have since served as the global soft law standard in this space, and a number of jurisdictions continue to incorporate their elements into hard law.

Scholarly work

Ruggie introduced the concepts of international regimes and

epistemic Epistemology (; ), or the theory of knowledge, is the branch of philosophy concerned with knowledge. Epistemology is considered a major subfield of philosophy, along with other major subfields such as ethics, logic, and metaphysics. Episte ...

communities into the

international relations International relations (IR), sometimes referred to as international studies and international affairs, is the scientific study of interactions between sovereign states. In a broader sense, it concerns all activities between states—such as ...

field; he adapted from

Karl Polanyi Karl Paul Polanyi (; hu, Polányi Károly ; 25 October 1886 – 23 April 1964),''Encyclopædia Britannica'' (Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica Inc. 2003) vol 9. p. 554 was an Austro-Hungarian economic anthropologist and politician, best known ...

the term "

embedded liberalism Embedded liberalism is a term in international political economy for the global economic system and the associated international political orientation as they existed from the end of World War II to the 1970s. The system was set up to support a c ...

" to explain the post-

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

international economic order; and he was a major contributor to the emergence of the constructivist approach to international relations theorizing, which takes seriously the roles of

norm Naturally occurring radioactive materials (NORM) and technologically enhanced naturally occurring radioactive materials (TENORM) consist of materials, usually industrial wastes or by-products enriched with radioactive elements found in the envi ...

s, ideas and identities, alongside other factors, in determining international outcomes. A survey in ''

Foreign Policy A State (polity), state's foreign policy or external policy (as opposed to internal or domestic policy) is its objectives and activities in relation to its interactions with other states, unions, and other political entities, whether bilaterall ...

'' magazine named him as one of the 25 most influential international relations scholars in the United States and Canada. His book ''Just Business: Multinational Corporations and Human Rights'' has been translated into Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, and Spanish. Ruggie's 1982 article on embedded liberalism is the most highly cited study in IPE scholarship.

Awards and recognition

Ruggie had a

Doctor of Laws A Doctor of Law is a degree in law. The application of the term varies from country to country and includes degrees such as the Doctor of Juridical Science (J.S.D. or S.J.D), Juris Doctor (J.D.), Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), and Legum Doctor (LL. ...

(

honoris causa An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or ''ad hono ...

) from McMaster; and a Doctor of Letters (honoris causa) from the University of Waterloo. A fellow of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and ...

, Ruggie received a

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...

. He also received the

International Studies Association The International Studies Association (ISA) is a US-based professional association for scholars and practitioners in the field of international studies. Founded in 1959, ISA has been headquartered at the University of Connecticut in Storrs since ...

's Distinguished Scholar Award and the

American Political Science Association The American Political Science Association (APSA) is a professional association of political science students and scholars in the United States. Founded in 1903 in the Tilton Memorial Library (now Tilton Hall) of Tulane University in New Orleans, ...

Hubert Humphrey Hubert Horatio Humphrey Jr. (May 27, 1911 – January 13, 1978) was an American pharmacist and politician who served as the 38th vice president of the United States from 1965 to 1969. He twice served in the United States Senate, representing Mi ...

Award for outstanding public service by a political scientist; the AS.K. social science prize from the

WZB Berlin Social Science Center The WZB Berlin Social Science Center (german: Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung, WZB), also known by its German initials WZB, is an internationally renowned research institute for the social sciences, the largest such institution ...

; as well as awards from the American Bar Association and the Washington Foreign Law Society, the latter honoring "an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to the development and application of international law."

Board memberships

Ruggie chaired the Board of the nonprofit organization ''Shift'', the leading center of expertise in business and human rights, working with businesses, governments, workers organization, financial institutions and civil society to implement the UN Guiding Principles. He was on the Board of the Arabesque Group, an ESG data provider and asset manager, as well as on Unilever's Sustainability Advisory Council. He was previously the Chair of the Institute for Human Rights and Business (IHRB) from 2012-2016, and served as its Patron until his death in 2021.

Death

John Ruggie died on the 16th September 2021. Ruggie was married to his wife Mary Ruggie. They had one son, Andreas.

References

External links

John Ruggie's personal website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ruggie, John 1944 births 2021 deaths People from Graz American people of Austrian descent Harvard Kennedy School faculty Columbia University faculty University of California, Berkeley alumni International relations scholars Constructivist international relations scholars United Nations special rapporteurs American officials of the United Nations Special Representatives of the Secretary-General of the United Nations