Guihenno, undersecretary general for the United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations, will present a lecture titled "Peacekeeping: Lessons Learned and Current Challenges" at 5 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 8, in Dodds Auditorium, Robertson Hall.
A French national with vast experience in the field of diplomacy, defense and international relations, Guihenno was appointed by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan. He assumed his duties in October 2000, setting as his first tasks the improvement of the U.N.'s capacity to maintain and build peace as well as bringing together the operational and political sides of maintaining peace.
Guihenno has spent almost two decades of his career in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of France, most recently as ambassador to the Western European Union. He was a member of the U.N. commission responsible for the "White Paper on Defense" (1994) and has been the chair of the Institut des Hautes Etudes de Defense Nationale since 1998. Guihenno also has been a member of the U.N. secretary-general's advisory board on disarmament matters since 1999.
Guihenno's lecture is sponsored by the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs' Office of External Affairs.