Jean-Marc Coicaud

Dr. Jean-Marc Coicaud heads the United Nations University (UNU) Office at the United Nations in New York. He was Senior Academic Officer at the UNU in Tokyo from 1996 to 2003. Before joining UNU, he served in the Executive Office of the United Nations Secretary-General as a speechwriter for Dr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali (1992-1996). A former fellow at Harvard University (Center for International Affairs, Department of Philosophy and Harvard Law School, from 1986 to 1992), Coicaud has held appointments such as Cultural Attaché with the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Legislative Aide with the European Parliament (Financial Committee), Associate Professor at the University of Paris, and Visiting Professor at the Ecole Normale Supérieure-Ulm in Paris. He has also taught at the New School for Social Research (New York). He has been a Senior Fellow at the United States Institute of Peace (Washington, D.C.) and a Global Research Fellow at New York University School of Law. Coicaud holds a Ph.D. in political science-law from the Sorbonne and a Doctorat d'Etat in philosophy from the Institut d'Etudes Politiques of Paris. In addition, he holds undergraduate and graduate degrees in literature and linguistics.

Jean-Marc Coicaud is the author of the following single-authored books: L’introuvable démocratie autoritaire (1996), Légitimité et Politique (Presses Universitaires de France, 1997), Politics and Legitimacy: A Contribution to the Study of Political Right and Political Responsibility (Cambridge University Press, 2002, also available in Spanish, Japanese, Chinese and Arabic), Beyond the National Interest (United States Institute of Peace Press, 2007) and, in Japanese, Limits of the UN/Future of the UN (Fujiwara Shoten, 2007). He co-authored (with Charles A. Kupchan, Emmanuel Adler, and Yuen Foong Khong) Power in Transition: The Peaceful Change of International Order (United Nations University Press, 2001). He co-edited, with Daniel Warner, Ethics and International Affairs: Extent and Limits (UNU Press, 2001), with Veijo Heiskanen, The Legitimacy of International Organizations (UNU Press, 2001), with Michael W. Doyle and Anne-Marie Gardner, The Globalization of Human Rights (UNU Press, 2003) and, with Daniel A. Bell, Ethics in Action: The Ethical Challenges of International Human Rights Nongovernmental Organizations (Cambridge University Press, 2007). In 2008, he has published, in Chinese, Towards the International Rule of Law (SDX Joint Publishing Company), as well as two new co-edited volumes, with Nicholas J. Wheeler, National Interest and International Solidarity: Particular and Universal Ethics in International Life (UNU Press) and, with Mark Gibney, Rhoda E. Howard-Hassmann and Niklaus Steiner, The Age of Apology: Facing Up to the Past (University of Pennsylvania Press). He is now working on a new single-authored book, The Morality of International Politics.

Jean-Marc Coicaud is a member of the Board of Directors of the Academic Council for the United Nations Systems (ACUNS) and a member of the Advisory Board of Global Policy Innovations (New York). He also serves as an adviser for the Fondation pour l’innovation politique (Paris).