Giandomenico Picco

Giandomenico Picco (8 October 1948 – 10 March 2024), also known as Gianni Picco, was an Italian diplomat and United Nations Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs, who negotiated the release of 11 hostages held by terrorists in Lebanon, earning him the epithets "chief troubleshooter" and "unarmed soldier of diplomacy" from United Nations Secretary-General Javier Pérez de Cuéllar.

Background Giandomenico Picco was born on 8 October 1948 in Udine, Italy. He studied at the Liceo Classico Jacopo Stellini in Udine, Italy, BA in political science at the University of Padua, MA in international relations and comparative politics at the University of California at Santa Barbara (via the U.S.-Italy Fulbright Commission), the University of Prague, and a diploma in European integration studies at the University of Amsterdam. and may have instigated them. Among those with whom Picco negotiated was Mohammad Javad Zarif. 1999: Release of 13 Jews arrested in Shiraz, Iran, and charged with espionage. At the request of American Jewish leaders, Picco intervened with Iranian President Khatami and succeeded in obtaining the release of all prisoners.

(Among hostages Picco could not save were American soldiers William Francis Buckley and William R. Higgins.

The Pio Manzù International Research Centre's International Scientific Committee included Picco as vice president and Mikhail Gorbachev. On their behalf, he presented an award to Diana, Princess of Wales.

Picco also spoke to the World Affairs Seminar and gave a keynote address to the Institute for Cultural Diplomacy in 2017.

Dialogue Among Civilizations See Dialogue Among Civilizations

In 1999, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan appointed Picco as Personal Representative for the UN Year of Dialogue Among Civilizations, proclaimed in 1998. and secondly to Kate Glucksman. His son Giacomo Picco is an investment banker.

Giandomenico Picco died on 10 March 2024, at the age of 75. Former Italian diplomat Marco Carnelos called Picco "a great Italian diplomat" who "unfortunately for my home country... did not work for the Italian foreign service."

Awards On 12 December 1991, US President George H. W. Bush presented the Medal of Freedom to Pérez de Cuéllar and the Presidential Award for Exceptional Service to Picco, while welcoming home American hostages Thomas Sutherland, Alann Steen, Jesse Turner, Joseph Cicippio, and Terry Anderson. Of Picco, President Bush said, "In his years as Special Envoy at the United Nations, Assistant Secretary-General Gianni Picco has sought always to serve peace and to resolve conflict." 1991: Presidential Award for Exceptional Service (United States of America)

Works Picco's principal work, Man Without a Gun (1999), received favorable notices. Kirkus reviews wrote, "A must-read for anyone who wants to know what the UN really does." Publishers Weekly wrote, "This memoir of an extraordinary career reads like a combination of a thriller and a textbook on the delicate and dangerous art of diplomacy in an often explosive region."

The documentary film, Dawn at Midnight (2014) by Cetywa Powell draws in part from Picco's memoir Man Without a Gun (1999).

Books (English) Lessons of the Iran-Iraq War (1990) International Solidarity and National Sovereignty (Giovanni Delli Zotti, co-editor) (1995) Man Without a Gun (1999) The Fog of Peace with Gabriel Rifkind (2013)

Books (Italian) I labirinti del presente with Antonio Torrenzano (2004)

Articles "The UN and the Use of Force: Leave the Secretary General Out of It," Foreign Affairs (September/October 1976) "A New Afghanistan in a New International Construct," Carnegie Council's U.S. Global Engagement Initiative (USGE) (2014)

Interviews from the United Nations 1998.09.23: Giandomenico Picco, Director of the UN Office for Special Political Affairs 1990.05.24: Giandomenico Picco, Director and Assistant to the UN Secretary-General for Special Assignments 1991.12.06: Giandomenico Picco, UN Assistant Secretary-General 2000.04.20: Giandomenico Picco, Personal Representative of the Secretary-General to the United Nations Year of Dialogue Among Civilizations