has been Undersecretary-General of the United Nations, specially charged with peace keeping operations. Son of the great French essayist Jean Guéhenno, he made a career as a top diplomat and worked for several years for the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Among other things, he held positions as a Cultural Attaché at the French Embassy in Washington and as an Ambassador at the West-European Union. In 1998 he was appointed chairman of the Institut des Hautes Études de Défense Nationale. Until his nomination as Undersecretary-General, Guéhenno also worked for the French Audit Office. Besides numerous articles on international politics, he wrote La fin de la démocratie (1993) and L’avenir de la liberté - La démocratie dans la mondialisation (1999), and co-authored a Guide du maintien de la paix (2006).