Sukehiro Hasegawa


Sukehiro Hasegawa is a Japanese academic, educator, author and administrator. He served as the Special Representative of the Secretary-General of the United Nations for Timor-Leste and head of peacekeeping and peacebuilding missions, UNMISET, UNOTIL and UNMIT from May 2004 to September 2006. He is currently the President of the , the Liaison Officer in Tokyo, the Chair of the Hiroshima Peacebuilders Center Council and the Personal Advisor to former President and Prime Minister José Ramos-Horta of Timor-Leste.

Education

Hasegawa holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from the University of Michigan, a Master of Arts degree in public administration from International Christian University of Tokyo, and a Ph.D. in international relations from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri.

Professional career

With the United Nations

Hasegawa entered the United Nations Development Programme in 1969, and then spent 37 years of his professional career as an international civil servant. He was Deputy Resident Representative of UNDP in Nepal from 1978 to 1980 and in Indonesia from 1980 to 1984. He later served as UNDP Resident Representative and Resident Coordinator of the United Nations operational activities for development in Samoa, Cook Islands, Niue, and Tokelau. In 1987, he was appointed Deputy Executive Coordinator of the UN Volunteers Programme. In 1993, after a Japanese UN Volunteer District Electoral Supervisor and a Cambodian interpreter were killed in an ambush, Hasegawa participated, on behalf of the UN Volunteers Programme, in the management of the resulting crisis that affected the UN Transitional Authority in Cambodia. In April 1994, he was appointed Director of Policy and Planning of the United Nations peacekeeping operation in Somalia, and in January 1995, he became the United Nations Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Rwanda. He subsequently served as the Deputy Assistant Administrator and Deputy Regional Director for Asia and the Pacific of UNDP in New York City from 1996 to 1999.

In East Timor

From July 2002 to September 2006, he served as the United Nations Resident Coordinator for East Timor, and also served first as Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General for East Timor and Deputy Head of UNMISET from 1 July 2002 to 20 May 2004. Hasegawa was appointed Head of the United Nations Office in East Timor, UNMISET, and Special Representative of the Secretary-General for East Timor on 21 May 2004 and served in that capacity until September 2006. In October 2006, he was appointed a Goodwill Ambassador to East Timor, and then served as the Special Adviser to both President José Ramos-Horta and Prime Minister Xanana Gusmão of East Timor. He currently serves José Ramos-Horta as the Personal Adviser since January 2015.

Academic career

From April 2007 to March 2016, Hasegawa had been teaching at Hosei University on peace-building, international organizations, contemporary foreign policy and global governance. He has been an invited as a speaker and a senior mentor at many meetings, conferences and seminars including those held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in 2009, Cairo, Egypt in 2009 and 2010, Yaoundé, Cameroon in 2012, Hiroshima and Tokyo, Japan in 2007-2013 on peacekeeping and peacebuilding operations.

Positions

Hasegawa is the President of the , member of the Board of Directors of the United Nations Association of Japan, the Japan Association of United Nations Studies, and member of the Earth Charter Commission for Asia and the Pacific. He is currently the ACUNS Liaison Officer in Tokyo after he served as a member of the Board of Directors and the Executive Committee of the .

Publications