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and important external partners in the robust unfavorable international conditions. This will
academic and private sectors, Geneva is the only perpetuate erroneous practices of the past
most significant operational hub of the UN and shortchange any meaningful reforms, in
Secretariat, indeed, of the entire UN system. the process hurting and mangling the lives of
hundreds of UN staff. The bottom line here is
The United Nations Office at Geneva, which is at that the member states of the Organization need
the epicenter of International Geneva, is much to empower the Secretary-General to do this,
more than just a Department of the Secretariat. instead of pressuring the Secretariat to keep
Once the European headquarters of the United cutting costs and passing this off as reform. I
Nations, UNOG has seen its role and functions have written many an aide-mémoire on this and
steadily erode over the past decades leaving it presented them to high management, but they
with no substantive mandate. Yet, after UNHQ, never received any traction.
UNOG is the most significant asset of the UN
Secretariat. It is hosted by a most generous You come from a distinguished diplomatic
and supportive host country, a welcoming city family—your father was Georgia’s Minister for
and canton with a history of multilateralism, Foreign Affairs and Deputy Prime Minister.
universally known as the capital of human rights How did this legacy influence your career? Did
and humanitarianism and of disarmament, it it create opportunities—or perhaps set high My father was a very accomplished chess master. and impactful career, what advice would you
occupies the iconic Palais des Nations, the physical expectations and additional pressure? As a child, in the 1940s, he studied in the same offer to the next generation of UN leaders and
embodiment of multilateralism, is managed by a I think every child is influenced by the professions youth chess school in Tbilisi as the former diplomats?
Director-General at the under-secretary-general of their parents. If my parents had been doctors world chess champion Tigran Petrosian. They Offering advice is a thankless job. The problem
level who is the representative of the Secretary- and I had grown up thumbing through anatomy were friends and my father was the champion of the UN is not lack of advice, or of ideas, it
General in Switzerland and boasts a complement atlases, there is a high probability that I would of that school two years after Petrosian, he is that most of these at some point throughout
of highly qualified, experienced and committed have opted for that professional choice. My was that good. He was also president of the the eight decades of its existence were either
professional and general service staff. However, father’s work, or what I saw of it as an eight-nine- Georgian Chess Federation twice, in the 1970s discarded, not adopted, or adopted and relegated
they are almost entirely engaged in either year-old kid in Bombay, India, and then at age ten and again in the 1990s, and president of the to oblivion for a variety of reasons of political
servicing other organizations’ meetings or to fourteen in London, certainly influenced my USSR Chess Federation in the 1980s. My father expediency and national egoism.
providing administrative and logistical services. choice. Thinking back, I think what appealed to always considered his abilities in chess as a
As important as those functions are, UNOG is me most in my father’s work was his interaction great boon in his diplomatic work. Incidentally, Instead of advice, I would like to express the hope
more than ‘equipped’ to manage political issues. with people. I liked that aspect, and professional the legendary Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin, that the member states of this Organization finally
travel as a lifestyle. My parents gave me honest Soviet Ambassador to six American Presidents, come around to realizing that this Organization is
In the last decade or so, UNHQ has increasingly advice, so I would make the choice consciously with whom my father and I – at different times in everybody’s interests, it was not created to cater
tended to blur the difference between OAH and and I am forever grateful to them. – had the privilege of working, was also an to every selfish wish, but to create space where
‘field’, treating OAH increasingly as just a field excellent chess player. issues that were intractable outside, could be
office. This has led to an over-centralization I had never been intimidated by my father’s discussed, negotiated and resolved jointly, for the
of managerial prerogatives and functions at ‘shadow,’ on the contrary, I enjoyed basking in it. Diplomacy, in my view, is strategic and benefit of all, within the chambers that were tailor-
UNHQ, likening the UN Secretariat to a tadpole. He left a legacy of kindness, and throughout my predictable in how well you prepare your own made for this purpose. The Organization came
It is this situation, that requires a comprehensive life when someone recognized my family name position, how deeply you learn your opposite into being because back then, over eighty years
substantive – not just budgetary – review of the and made the connection, people who had known number’s position, strengths, weaknesses, but ago, a multilateral mindset existed that allowed
functions within the worldwide Secretariat. The him and my mother would invariably be kind and also where common ground lies, to be able the Organization to be created. That mindset
objective should be to evaluate which of its parts considerate to me. Despite this, I was always ‘my to work towards it. As one of my favorite past needs to be rekindled, but we cannot afford to do
would be best placed to perform which function own man’ and felt no insecurities because of my bosses, former U.S. Secretary of State James A. it by the same means, those of a cataclysmic war,
and to rearrange and streamline these accordingly, father’s career and standing, on the contrary, I Baker, III used to teach me, a set of negotiations because it could well be humanity’s last. There is
to contribute to the achievement of the common have always been and continue to be very proud where one party out of many has nothing to a quote from Churchill that I like to cite. Almost
objectives of the Organization, as defined by the of him and my mother. My father was a wise, self- take back home, are failed negotiations. Therein eighty years ago, in a speech at the University
member states. A review and recalibration of made man. He gave me very valuable professional lie the greatest aspects of diplomacy, creativity, of Zurich, Winston Churchill illustrated the
the substantive vs. administrative functions in and life advice. I miss it terribly. improvisation, “audace” and the determination ultimate responsibility of states in reinforcing
the context of delegating – a policy prominently to achieve mutually advantageous outcomes, multilateralism. He said: “The League did not fail
promulgated but hollow due to opposite Diplomacy is often compared to chess. Do you without bluster, subterfuge and dishonesty, because of its principles or conceptions. It failed
practices – of substantive political functions to agree with this analogy? Is diplomacy a strategic, often passed off for diplomacy by the lesser because those principles were deserted by those
UNOG and other OAH, could yield the elusive predictable game—or does it still involve risk, practitioners of the craft. states which brought it into being”. I understand
‘bang for the buck’ instead of going down the unpredictability, and even a degree of political that by literary canons, it is not good form to start,
road of mechanically cutting posts, people and improvisation? The United Nations will soon celebrate its 80th or finish with a quote, but maybe you can allow
budgets in an effort to respond to increasingly Funny, you should mention chess and diplomacy. anniversary. With the benefit of your long me this, given that it is Churchill.

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