SECRETARY-GENERAL APPOINTS ROBERT C. ORR AS ASSISTANT SECRETARY-GENERAL FOR POLICY COORDINATION AND STRATEGIC PLANNING

Biographical Note

SECRETARY-GENERAL APPOINTS ROBERT C. ORR AS ASSISTANT SECRETARY-GENERAL

FOR POLICY COORDINATION AND STRATEGIC PLANNING

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.

His responsibilities include advising the Secretary-General on a full range of strategic issues, developing the Secretary-General’s signature policy initiatives, and running the Secretary-General’s cabinet-style Policy Committee.  Mr. Orr also serves as the Chair of the Counter-Terrorism Implementation Task Force, which coordinates 23 United Nations entities involved in counter-terrorism activities.

Mr. 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, Mr. Orr served in senior posts in the Government of the United States, including Deputy to the United States 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 nearly $1 billion in 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, Mr. Orr worked for the International Peace Academy in New York and with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in Nairobi, Kenya.

From 2001 to 2003, Mr. 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.

Mr. 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).

Mr. 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 two children.

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