SG/A/882
BIO/3588
9 August 2004
Secretary-General Appoints Robert C. Orr as Assistant Secretary-General for Policy Coordination and Strategic Planning
NEW YORK, 6 August (UN Headquarters) -- The Secretary-General today announced the appointment of Robert C. Orr of the United States as the new Assistant Secretary-General for Policy Coordination and Strategic Planning in the Executive Office of the Secretary-General.
Dr. Orr comes to the United Nations from Harvard University where he served as the Executive Director of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at the Kennedy School of Government. Prior to this, he served as Director of the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, D.C.
From 1996 to 2001, Dr. Orr served in senior posts in the Government of the United States, including Deputy to the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and Director of the USUN Washington office, where he was instrumental in securing an agreement to have the United States pay its arrears to the United Nations. He also served as Director of Global and Multilateral Affairs at the National Security Council, where he was responsible for peacekeeping and humanitarian affairs. Prior to this government service, Dr. Orr worked for the International Peace Academy in New York, and with non-governmental organizations in Nairobi, Kenya, with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
From 2001 to 2003, Dr. Orr co-directed a bipartisan commission on post-conflict reconstruction sponsored by the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington and the Association of the United States Army.
Dr. Orr has published extensively on post-conflict reconstruction, the United Nations, peacekeeping, and democracy promotion. His publications include Winning the Peace: an American Strategy for Post-Conflict Reconstruction (CSIS Press, 2004) and Keeping the Peace: Multidimensional UN Operations in Cambodia and El Salvador (Cambridge University Press, 1997).
Dr. Orr received his Ph.D. and M.P.A. in International Relations from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University, and his bachelor’s degree from the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). He speaks Spanish and Mandarin Chinese.
Dr. Orr is married and has a daughter.
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