Dr. Robert C. Orr has served as the Assistant Secretary-General for Policy Coordination and Strategic Planning in the Executive Office of the Secretary-General since 2004. His responsibilities include running the Secretary-General’s Policy Committee and serving as the principal policy advisor to the Secretary-General on climate change, energy, food security, global health and counter-terrorism.

Dr. Orr joined the United Nations from Harvard University where he served as the Executive Director of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at the Kennedy School of Government. Prior to this, he served as Director of the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, D.C.

From 1996 to 2001, Dr. Orr served in senior posts in the Government of the United States, including Deputy to the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and Director of the USUN Washington office, where he was instrumental in securing an agreement to have the United States pay its arrears to the United Nations. He also served as Director of Global and Multilateral Affairs at the National Security Council, where he was responsible for peacekeeping and humanitarian affairs.

Dr. Orr has published extensively on post-conflict reconstruction, the United Nations, peacekeeping, and democracy promotion. His publications include Winning the Peace: an American Strategy for Post-Conflict Reconstruction (CSIS Press, 2004) and Keeping the Peace: Multidimensional UN Operations in Cambodia and El Salvador (Cambridge University Press, 1997).

Dr. Orr received his Ph.D. and M.P.A. in International Relations from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University, and his bachelor’s degree from the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). He speaks Spanish and Mandarin.

Dr. Orr is married and has two children.