Jean-Marie Guéhenno is an international security and foreign policy specialist.

Jean-Marie was formerly the Head of Peacekeeping Operations to the United Nations. In this role, he oversaw United Nations peacekeeping operations across Afghanistan, Iraq, Congo, Sudan, Darfur, Kosovo, the Ivory Coast, Georgia, Lebanon and Haiti. He was also formerly the Deputy Special Envoy for the United Nations and the League of Arab States, and Chairman of France’s White Paper on National Security and Defence.

Jean-Marie also served as Chief Executive Officer of the International Crisis Group. He is presently the Arnold Saltzman Professor of Professional Practice at the Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies and the director of the Kent program on conflict at Columbia University. He chairs the scientific council of the French Institute for higher national defence studies. Jean-Marie is also a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Affairs Council and of the United Nations Secretary-General’s High-Level Advisory Board on Mediation, and a Distinguished Fellow at the Brookings Institution.

Jean-Marie has enjoyed a highly successful career with the French Government. His positions included serving as the Director of Policy Planning for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Head of the International Department of the Court of Audit. Jean-Marie is an officer of the Legion d’Honneur and a Commander of the German Federal Cross of Merit (Bundesverdienstkreuz).