Mark Malloch Brown

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Mark Malloch Brown
Image:118256-malloch.jpg
In office
April 1, 2006 – December 31, 2006
Preceded by Louise Fréchette
Succeeded by Asha-Rose Migiro
Born 1953[1]
United Kingdom[1]

Sir Mark Malloch Brown KCMG (born 1953 in England), a British national, was United Nations Deputy Secretary-General. His term of office began on 1 April 2006 and ended on 31 December 2006, when he was succeeded by Asha-Rose Migiro of Tanzania. He is a former journalist, development specialist, and communications consultant.

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[edit] Early life and education

Malloch Brown was educated at Marlborough College, and earned a First Class Honours Degree in History from Magdalene College, Cambridge and a Master's Degree in Political Science from the University of Michigan. He is an only child but has four children (Madison, Isobel, George and Phoebe) with his wife Patricia.

[edit] Early career

He was the political correspondent at The Economist between 1977 and 1979, and founding editor of the Economist Development Report.

Following this he worked for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and was stationed in Thailand where he was in charge of field operations for Cambodian refugees. In 1983, Malloch Brown contemplated running as an SDP candidate in the 1983 UK General election but was not selected as a parliamentary candidate for the party.[2]

In 1986 Malloch Brown joined the Sawyer-Miller Group as the lead international partner. While at Sawyer-Miller he was amongst the first communication consultants to use US-style election campaign methods for foreign governments, companies, and public policy debates. His international assignments included work in Peru and Colombia.

[edit] World Bank/UN

In 1994 Malloch Brown joined the World Bank as Vice-President for External Affairs, which included responsibility for relations with the United Nations.

In 1999, he moved to the United Nations where he was Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). During his time he spear-headed a number of reforms, including the creation of the United Nations Development Group (UNDG), chaired by Malloch Brown as the Administrator of UNDP, which co-ordinates the activities of all the UN's development programmes. Internally at UNDP he expanded UNDP's activities (controversially, often in competition with other UN agencies) and improved resource mobilisation from donor countries. Perhaps most importantly he was a key architect of the Millennium Development Goals which were adopted at the UN Millennium Summit in December 2000.

In January 2005 Malloch Brown was appointed Chef de Cabinet to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, retaining his position as Administrator of UNDP until the appointment of his successor.

[edit] Deputy Secretary-General

[edit] Appointment

On March 3, 2006 it was announced that Mark Malloch Brown would succeed Louise Fréchette as United Nations Deputy Secretary-General on April 1, 2006. He was the second person to hold this post in the UN's history. As the appointment is made by the UN Secretary-General and not the UN General Assembly, Malloch Brown's term of office ended with the completion of Kofi Annan's term at the end of 2006.

[edit] Controversy

On June 6, 2006, while addressing a conference in New York, he criticised the United States government for allowing "too much unchecked UN-bashing and stereotyping". He stated that much of the political dialogue in the US about the UN had been abdicated to its most strident critics, such as conservative talk-show host Rush Limbaugh and the Fox News cable channel and, as a result of this, the true role and value of the UN has become "a mystery in Middle America" [3]. These remarks resulted in a backlash from the White House and some conservative commentators, culminating in a call for an apology by US envoy to the United Nations John Bolton. Bolton added to reporters, "I spoke to the secretary-general this morning, I said "I've known you since 1989 and I'm telling you this is the worst mistake by a senior U.N. official that I have seen in that entire time."[4] John Podesta and Richard C. Leone wrote that Bolton's comment "distorted Mr. Malloch Brown’s remarks by calling them an attack on 'the American people', and ... by conflating Rush Limbaugh and Fox News with the American people. ... Mr. Malloch Brown had to break with the niceties of diplomatic tradition to plead for such leadership. ... Mr. Malloch Brown is surely correct: the people of the United States deserve better leadership and diplomacy to represent their interests in the world’s most important international body."[5] Malloch Brown himself rejected the need to apologise, and received the support of Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who said that his deputy's comments "should be read in the right spirit".[6]

In July 2006, during the Israel-Hezbollah crisis in Lebanon, Malloch Brown said America should allow others to "share the lead" in solving the Lebanon crisis, and also advised that Britain adopt a lower profile in solving the crisis lest the international community see the negotiations as being led by the same team that instigated the invasion of Iraq. These comments again drew criticism from some American officials, including the US State Department, a spokesman from which stated "We are seeing a troubling pattern of a high official of the UN who seems to be making it his business to criticize member states and, frankly, with misplaced and misguided criticisms."[7]

Malloch Brown responded in an interview with PBS:

"I don't think the US has anything to object to in the comments. I was really in fact in the interview calling for the US to reach out to France and others to make sure it was demonstrating a broad multilateral coalition and within a single news cycle of my calling for that, it was doing it." He added "I may be prophetic but I wasn't critical".[8]

When Bolton later announced his own resignation in early December, Malloch Brown made his delight clear, telling reporters, "No comment — and you can say he said it with a smile.".[9]

[edit] Other

Mr. Malloch Brown became an Honorary Patron of the University Philosophical Society in 2005.

On December 15, 2006, he was named a visiting fellow at the Yale Center for the Study of Globalization. He plans to focus on writing a book on changing leadership in a globalized world while in residence during the spring term.[10]

Malloch Brown was knighted in the 2007 New Years Honours List. There is talk of a peerage and role in a Gordon Brown cabinet.[11]

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Burkeman, Oliver (2006-08-05). The Guardian profile: Mark Malloch Brown. Guardian Unlimited. Retrieved on August 5, 2006.
  2. ^ Randeep Ramesh in The Guardian, "Meet Kofi Annan's right hand man", January 12, 2005
  3. ^ Alec Russell in The Telegraph, "US failing to aid the UN, says Annan's deputy", June 8, 2006
  4. ^ Fox News, "Speech by U.N. Leader Draws Angry Response From U.S.", June 7, 2006
  5. ^ John Podesta and Richard C. Leone in the Tne Century Foundation, "Time for U.S. Leadership, Not Bullying at the United Nations", June 16, 2006
  6. ^ James Bone and Richard Beeston in The Times, "Apologise or we'll cut your funding, US envoy tells UN", June 9, 2006
  7. ^ Reuters, August 2, 2006
  8. ^ PBS NewsHour, "Talks for International Force in Lebanon Stall in U.N.", August 2, 2006
  9. ^ Edith M. Lederer in The Washington Post, "Bush Agenda Came 1st for Bolton at U.N.", December 5, 2006
  10. ^ AP in The International Herald Tribune, "U.N. official named fellow at Yale", December 15, 2006
  11. ^ Oliver Marre in The Observer, "Pendennis", November 12, 2006

[edit] External links

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Preceded by
Louise Fréchette		 United Nations Deputy Secretary-General
2006		 Succeeded by
Asha-Rose Migiro
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