Brian Urquhart was one of the first United Nations civil servants and served in the United Nations Secretariat from 1945 until his retirement in 1986. He worked closely with the first five Secretaries-General on peace and security matters, especially peace-keeping, and was Under Secretary-General for Special Political Affairs from 1974 to 1986. He is the author of Hammarskjold, a biography of the second Secretary-General, A Life in Peace and War, Decolonization and World Peace and Ralph Bunche: An American Life. Most recently he served as Scholar in Residence in the International Affairs Program at the Ford Foundation.
