Experts & Staff

Richard Gowan

Associate Senior Policy Fellow

Areas of expertise

United Nations system; European security and defence policy; Africa; Western Balkans

Languages

English

Biography

Richard Gowan is an associate fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations.

He is currently UN director at the International Crisis Group, and was previously research director at New York University’s Center on International Cooperation. He has taught at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs and Stanford in New York, and wrote a weekly column on multilateralism (“Diplomatic Fallout”) for World Politics Review from 2013-2019. He has acted as a consultant to the UN on peacekeeping, political affairs, and migration.

How not to intervene in Syria

The hunt is on for ways to offer security and aid to Syrian civilians, but the risk of any military-humanitarian mission backfiring is high. The lessons of Darfur are that any peacekeepers would be targeted, especially as the unrest turns into full-scale war.  

Can the EU do less good in the world?

Understandably, European governments are rethinking their aid budgets in the light of the economic crisis. But any cuts to aid and foreign ministry budgets should be judged according to results rather than a simple cost calculation.  

A memo to Ban Ki-moon

Dear Secretary-General, contratulations on winning a second five year term at the United Nations. Here are the issues that you will have to concentrate on, beginning with the immediate concerns of Libya, the wider Middle East and Sudan.  

The EU and Libya: Missing in action in Misrata

The European Union needs to learn the lessons from the past as it wrestles with using military support to underpin its humanitarian assistance in Libya. This will allow it to develop more credible intervention forces for future crisis – ones that might actually work.  

South Sudan & Palestine could heat up the UN’s summer

The reputation of the UN and Ban Ki-moon may hinge upon the outcome in two of the world's trouble spots – South Sudan and Palestine. South Sudan in particular remains a crucial test of the institution's ability to handle weak states.  

Will the EU win glory on the shores of Tripoli?

Western military planners are examining options for deposing Gaddafi. But somebody also needs to think about an international peace operation to stabilise Libya, whether to oversee the dictator's negotiated exit or clean up afterwards. Could this be a role for a UN-mandated EU?

Rebuilding Libya

Libya is in chaos, and Colonel Gaddafi seems determined to hang on to power at any expense. But he has already lost control of large swathes of the country, the security forces and bureaucracy, and it is not premature to start planning for a post-Gaddafi Libya.

Who Lost the Eastern Mediterranean?

For all the talk of a 'global Europe', the EU struggles to influence its neighbours in the Eastern Mediterranean. Its uncertainty over Egypt is indicative of a wider loss of direction in the EU's regional policies. 

India and Europe still need each other

A shift in the power balance between the EU and India has changed the two powers' attitudes to each other, but there will still be plenty to talk about at their summit this week. Concluding a free trade agreement, and greater strategic cooperation on a range of security issues, is in the interests of both.

Publications

Articles

Multilateral values: European ideals under pressure

The West no longer has a monopoly on values at the UN. But Europeans can shape a new narrative in the changing multilateral system by emphasising their commitment to sovereignty, development, and openness

How not to save the world: EU divisions at the UN

Although their new friendship treaty does not call for an EU Security Council seat, France and Germany must pitch a compelling vision of multilateralism at the UN

Lonely at the top

Running the United Nations is a lonely job for António Guterres – and he seems to prefer it that way. 

Saving British internationalism from Brexit

Even if the UK is a diminished power after Brexit international partners will still need its cooperation in the UN and NATO

Post-Humanitarian Europe

This week’s World Humanitarian Summit was an opportunity to discuss how to assist the suffering, yet the entire process showed much of the humanitarian sector at its most fragmented and self-indulgent

The limited avenues of internationalisation

The European response to the Syrian refugee crisis to date has been characterised by short-term and reactive measures. But this is going to be…

A broader watchfulness

While Syrians currently account for almost 20 percent of the 60 million refugees and IDPs worldwide, they are by no means the only ones…

Podcasts

In the media