Biographical Note

SECRETARY-GENERAL Appoints Edward C. Luck of United States Special Adviser

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is pleased to announce the appointment of Edward C. Luck as Special Adviser at the Assistant Secretary-General level.  Mr. Luck’s work will include the responsibility to protect, as set out by the General Assembly in paragraphs 138 and 139 of the 2005 World Summit Outcome document.  Mr. Luck’s primary role will be conceptual development and consensus building, to assist the General Assembly to continue consideration of this crucial issue.  Towards this end, the Secretary-General has requested Mr. Luck to help him develop proposals, through a broad consultative process, to be considered by the United Nations membership.

Mr. Luck is Vice-President and Director of Studies of the International Peace Academy, an independent policy research institute.  He is currently on public service leave as Professor of Practice in International and Public Affairs of the School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University, where he is Director of the Center on International Organization.  Before coming to Columbia in 2001, he was Founder and Executive Director of the Center for the Study of International Organization, a research centre jointly established by the School of Law of New York University and the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs of Princeton University.

From 1995 to 1997, he played a key role in the United Nations reform process as a Senior Consultant to the Department of Administration and Management of the United Nations, as Staff Director of the General Assembly’s Open-ended High-level Working Group on the Strengthening of the United Nations System, and as an adviser to the President of the General Assembly, Razali Ismail, on his proposals for Security Council reform.

From 1984 to 1994, Mr. Luck served as President and Chief Executive Officer of the United Nations Association of the United States, an organization he served in a number of research and management capacities between 1974 and 1984.  He has also been a visiting professor at Sciences-Po in Paris, a senior consultant to the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, a member of the Secretary-General’s Policy Working Group on the United Nations and Terrorism, and a consultant to numerous private foundations and research centres.

A frequent media commentator and prolific author, Mr. Luck’s most recent books include The UN Security Council:  Practice and Promise (Routledge, 2006), International Law and Organization:  Closing the Compliance Gap, co-edited with Michael W. Doyle(Rowman and Littlefield, 2004), and Mixed Messages:  American Politics and International Organization, 1919-1999 (Brookings, 1999).

He holds a Bachelor of Arts from Dartmouth College with High Distinction in International Relations and a series of graduate degrees from Columbia University, including an Master of International Affairs from the School of International Affairs, the Certificate of the Russian Institute, and Master of Arts, Master of Philosophy, and Doctor of Philosophy degrees in political science from the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.

He was born on 17 October 1948 and is married with one daughter.

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