Jean-Marie Guéhenno is director of the Kent Program on Conflict Resolution and professor at the School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University. Member of the UN High-level Advisory boards on mediation and on disarmament matters, he sits on the boards of several nonprofits, including the SIPRI. He chairs the scientific council of the French Institute for Higher Defense Studies. He was appointed by Kofi Annan Under-Secretary-General for peacekeeping (2000-08), leading the biggest expansion of peacekeeping in the history of the UN. He worked as deputy special envoy for Syria (2012). He was president of the French commission of the White Paper for defense and national security (2012-13), and president of the International Crisis Group (2014-17). He authored several books, including Le Premier XXIème Siècle, de la globalisation à l’émiettement, which received the 2022 annual prize of Revue des Deux Mondes.