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Sir Brian Urquhart

Sir Brian Urquhart
Former Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations

Biography Biography in PDF

United Nations
Reflections on the United Nations
Interviews of Sir Brian Urquhart
by Ms. Virginia Morris, Principal Legal Officer
Codification Division, United Nations Office of Legal Affairs


Part III. Developments in the Role of the
United Nations in Peacekeeping
In the third part of this series, Sir Brian Urquhart discusses the establishment of the first United Nations peacekeeping operations which were not expressly provided for in the Charter of the United Nations, how these operations have evolved over the years in addressing different conflict situations, the challenges and successes of particular peacekeeping operations as well as suggestions for enhancing the effectiveness of United Nations peacekeeping efforts in the future.

Original Lecture in English
Video | Audio
(28/5/2008, 29 min)

Lecture with simultaneous interpretation
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United Nations
Reflections on the United Nations

Part III. Developments in the Role of the United Nations in Peacekeeping
A. Legal Instruments
Charter of the United Nations, San Francisco, 26 June 1945.

Universal Declaration on Human Rights, Paris, 10 December 1948.
B. Documents
Report on the International Control of Atomic Energy (the Acheson-Lilienthal Report), 16 March 1946.

Plan introduced by Bernard Baruch, Representative of the United States of America, to the United Nations Atomic Energy Commission, 14 June 1946.

Second and final report of the Secretary-General on the plan for an emergency international United Nations force requested in the resolution (A/3276) adopted by the General Assembly on 4 November 1956 (A/3302, 6 November 1956).

Ronald Reagan, “Democracy’s Next Battle”, speech addressed to the Oxford Union Society, 4 December 1992, Oxford, EnglandPDF(Courtesy of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library).
C. Doctrine
B. Urquhart and E. Childers, A World in Need of Leadership: Tomorrow's United Nations; a Fresh Appraisal, Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation, 1996.

B. Urquhart and E. Childers, Renewing the United Nations System, Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation, 1994.

B. Urquhart, Ralph Bunche: An American Life, W. W. Norton, 1993.

B. Urquhart, Great Problems Great Opportunities, Center for International Relations, 1992.

B. Urquhart and E. Childers, Towards a More Effective United Nations, Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation, 1991.

B. Urquhart, Reorganization of the United Nations Secretariat: a suggested outline for needed reforms, Ford Foundation, 1991.

B. Urquhart, A Life in Peace and War, Harper & Row, 1987.

B. Urquhart, Hammarskjöld, Knopf, 1972 (reprinted by W. W. Norton, 1994).

B. Urquhart and E. Childers, A World in Need of Leadership: Tomorrow's United Nations, Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation; 1990.

B. Urquhart, “The United Nations Rediscovered?”, World Policy Journal, XXI: 2, summer 2004.

B. Urquhart, “Where Are We Going?”, 3 Brown J. World Aff. 145, 1996.

B. Urquhart, L. Henkin, R. Butler, “Yesterday’s Politics, Tomorrow’s Problems: A World without the United Nations?”, 20 Melb. U. L. Rev. 16, 1995-1996.

B. Urquhart, “The United Nations forward or back?” The Seventeenth Corbishley Memorial Lecture, Wyndham Place Trust, 1994.

B. Urquhart, “Problems and Prospects of the United Nations”, 44 Int’l J. 803, 1988-1989.
D. Recommended Interviews
A Life in Peace and War: Conversation with Sir Brian Urquhart Conversations with History: Institute of International Studies, UC Berkeley March 19, 1996 by Harry Kreisler

The United Nations after 9/11: Conversation with Sir Brian Urquhart Conversations with History: Institute of International Studies, UC Berkeley February 23, 2004 by Harry Kreisler

Secretary-General Pays Official Visit to the Middle East. At the special luncheon for the Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar (standing centre, left), UNIFIL Commander Lt-General William Callaghan presents him with a glass decanter. Looking on (seated,right) are Brian E. Urquhart, Under-Secretary-General for Special Political Affairs and (seated left) UNIFIL Deputy Force Commander Brigadier-General G. Lund (10 June 1984).

Secretary-General Pays Official Visit to the Middle East

At the special luncheon for the Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar (standing centre, left), UNIFIL Commander Lt-General William Callaghan presents him with a glass decanter. Looking on (seated,right) are Brian E. Urquhart, Under-Secretary-General for Special Political Affairs and (seated left) UNIFIL Deputy Force Commander Brigadier-General G. Lund (10 June 1984).

   
Secretary-General Visits Middle East. Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim (right) holding talks with the Prime Minister of Israel, Menahem Begin. Seated to the right of the Secretary-General are: Brian E. Urquhart, Under-Secretary-General for Special Political Affairs; James O.C. Johan, Principal Officer, Office of the Under-Secretaries-General for Special Political Affairs; Albert Rohan, Deputy Executive Assistant to the Secretary-General; and Rudolf Stajduhar Spokesman for the Secretary-General (18 April 1978).

Secretary-General Visits
Middle East

Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim (right) holding talks with the Prime Minister of Israel, Menahem Begin. Seated to the right of the Secretary-General are: Brian E. Urquhart, Under-Secretary-General for Special Political Affairs; James O.C. Johan, Principal Officer, Office of the Under-Secretaries-General for Special Political Affairs; Albert Rohan, Deputy Executive Assistant to the Secretary-General; and Rudolf Stajduhar Spokesman for the Secretary-General (18 April 1978).