Jean-Marie Guéhenno Will Depart SIPA for Conflict Resolution NGO

Jean-Marie Guéhenno, the Arnold Saltzman Professor of Professional Practice in International and Public Affairs, will leave SIPA to become the president and CEO of the International Crisis Group, an NGO that works to prevent and resolve dangerous conflicts around the world. The Brussels-based organization announced the appointment on July 7.

Guéhenno, who is also associate director of Columbia’s Saltzman Institute for War and Peace Studies and director of the institute’s Center for International Conflict Resolution, is a popular instructor who taught courses such as International Conflict Resolution and Peace Operations in Fragile States for the last six years.

Before joining the SIPA faculty, Guéhenno served from 2000 to 2008 as the United Nations Under Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, a role in which he led the largest expansion of peacekeeping in the history of the UN, overseeing approximately 130,000 staff on eighteen missions.

In March 2012 Guéhenno took a leave of absence from SIPA in an effort to help resolve the crisis in Syria. He served more than four months under Kofi Annan as deputy joint special envoy of the United Nations and the League of Arab States on Syria.

“Jean-Marie Guéhenno has been a terrific contributor to the SIPA community,” said Dean Merit E. Janow. “As a professional who remained active in the very real work of conflict resolution, he has been a role model for our students. We have been fortunate to draw on his professional expertise and privileged to know him personally. I know the entire SIPA community wishes him the best as he prepares to begin this important new endeavor.”

“Jean-Marie has been a valued colleague,” said Richard Betts, the Arnold A. Saltzman Professor of War and Peace Studies. “I hope he will continue to act as a partner and resource for SIPA as we educate students in the crucial work of conflict resolution.”

A French national, Guéhenno was previously director of policy planning in the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, ambassador to the Western European Union, and chairman of the French Institute of Higher Defense Studies. He will assume his new post on September 1.