US foreign policy expert named as senior aide to Secretary-General

Secretary-General Kofi Annan today announced the appointment of Robert Orr, a veteran United States expert in foreign affairs, as the new United Nations Assistant Secretary-General for Policy Coordination and Strategic Planning.

Mr. Orr, who succeeds Michael Doyle, also from the United States, was most recently Executive Director of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. Before that, he served as Director of the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington.

From 1996 to 2001, he held senior posts in the US Government, including Deputy to the US Ambassador to the UN Richard Holbrooke and Director of Global and Multilateral Affairs at the National Security Council, where he was responsible for peacekeeping and humanitarian affairs.

Prior to government service he worked for the International Peace Academy in New York and with non-governmental organizations in Nairobi, Kenya.

Mr. Orr, who speaks Mandarin Chinese and Spanish, received a doctorate of philosophy from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University.