Marrack Goulding

Sir Marrack Goulding KCMG (2 September 19369 July 2010) was a British diplomat who served more than eleven years as Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations.

Early life Born in Plymouth in Devon, England, to Sir Irvine Goulding, a High Court judge. Goulding attended St Paul's School in London and later studied Literae Humaniores at Magdalen College, Oxford.

Career

HM Diplomatic Service Goulding entered HM Diplomatic Service in 1959 and was, in 1961, posted to the British Embassy in Kuwait. He returned to the United Kingdom in 1964, where he worked in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. In 1968, he was once more posted overseas, as the Head of Chancery of the British Embassy in Tripoli, Libya, and later of the Embassy in Cairo, Egypt.

United Nations On 1 January 1986, Goulding became Under-Secretary-General (USG) of the United Nations for Special Political Affairs, serving under Secretary-General Javier Pérez de Cuéllar. From then until March 1993, he headed peacekeeping operations for the UN, and presided over the creation of the Department of Peacekeeping Operations in 1992, during the term of Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali. According to Simon Chesterman of the New York University School of Law, the period of Goulding's service as head of UN peacekeeping – which saw the initiation of sixteen new missions – "may come to be regarded as its heyday".

St Antony's College, Oxford Goulding became Warden of St Antony's College at the University of Oxford on 1 October 1997, having been appointed in November of the previous year. He held this position until his retirement on 30 September 2006.

He had also, on a separate occasion, called for the withdrawal of American military forces from Iraq and the transfer of authority over security operations to a UN-sanctioned multinational force from Arab and Muslim countries.

Publications Goulding was the author of Peacemonger (2003), an account of the inner workings of the United Nations and its activities during his tenure. He has also published articles in various academic journals, including African Affairs and International Affairs.

Goulding was a recipient of the Duke of Westminster's Medal for Military Literature, awarded by the Royal United Services Institute for authorship of books that make "a notable and original contribution to the study of international and national security and defence".