Brian Urquhart

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sir Brian Edward Urquhart KCMG MBE (born 28 February 1919) is a former Undersecretary-General of the United Nations.

Urquhart was educated at Westminster School and Christ Church, Oxford. He was involved in the formation of the United Nations in 1945, and has advised every Secretary-General of the United Nations since its inception. His main fields of interest and operation at the UN have been conflict resolution and peacekeeping. Urquhart organized the first peacekeeping force (in Egypt after the Suez crisis). To differentiate the peacekeepers from other soldiers, the UN wanted to have the soldiers wear blue berets. When that turned out to take six weeks to make, Urquhart proposed the characteristic blue helmets, which could be made in a day by painting over regular ones.[1]

As Under Secretary General, Urquhart's main functions were the direction of peace-keeping forces in the Middle East and Cyprus, and negotiations in these two areas; amongst others, his contributions also included work on the negotiations relating to a Namibia peace settlement, negotiations in Kashmir, Lebanon and work on peaceful uses for nuclear energy.

Urquhart is also well known for his failed attempt, as an intelligence officer during World War II, to persuade the planners of Operation Market Garden to modify or abort their plans in light of crucial information obtained from aerial reconnaissance and the Dutch resistance, an episode retold in the Richard Attenborough film, A Bridge Too Far (where Urquhart's character has been renamed "Major Fuller", to avoid confusion with the similarly named commander of the British 1st Airborne Division).

Alongside his autobiography A Life in Peace and War his writing with Erskine Childers includes "A World in Need of Leadership: Tomorrow’s United Nations - A Fresh Appraisal" (with Erskine Childers, 1996); "Towards a More Effective United Nations" (with Erskine Childers, 1991); "Ralph Bunche: An American Life" (1993); and "Renewing the United Nations System" (with Erskine Childers, 1994). he also co-authored with Childers the book Renewing the United Nations System which recommended establishment of a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly through Article 22 of the United Nations Charter [2].