Les liaisons fructueuses - RUIG-GIAN

The Secretariat :
A Personal View from the Executive Secretary
By Randall Harbour 1
A Simple Twist of Fate
In November of 2000 an advertisement in the
Economist announced the position of Executive
Secretary of the Geneva International Academic
Network (GIAN). Working at that time as Coordinator
of the Graduate Institute of International
Studies’ (GIIS) Diplomatic Studies Programme,
I had peripherally followed the GIAN’s gestation and
sought further information. The position seemed to
correspond to my area of interest – international
relations, sustainable development, post-conflict
peacebuilding – and my conviction that intellectual
pursuits can and should contribute concretely, in
a policy-relevant manner, to protecting the planet
and improving the condition of its inhabitants.
I had recently spent two years in Rwanda with the
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
and on numerous occasions felt that action-oriented
research would have benefited our efforts on the
ground. The position also responded to my desire to
keep one foot in academia and another in the world
of international affairs.
After a series of interviews, initially with Jean-Marie
Dufour, Claude Raffestin and Peter Tschopp, subsequently
with the GIAN’s Bureau and finally, with
the Foundation Board, I was hired as the first (and
as it turns out, only) Executive Secretary of the
GIAN, beginning in February 2001.
They had a Dream : The Founders’ Challenge
Formally born in October of 1999, by early 2001
the GIAN lagged far behind schedule. The “founders”
– Maurice Bourquin, Jean-Luc Maurer and
Peter Tschopp representing the University of
Geneva, the Graduate Institute of Development
Studies (GIDS) and the GIIS respectively – along
with Bernard Fulpius and the original members
of the Foundation Board, had made considerable
progress in an eternally complex politico-university
environment. They had prepared the Statutes
and overcome a multitude of hurdles, laying the
groundwork on which the Network would be built :
funding for 2000-2003 (SFr 2.45 million per year),
a yet-to-be established headquarters at the Villa
Rigot and the participation of several international
organisations in the governing structure had been
secured. The Scientific Committee, presided by
Claude Raffestin, was in place.
Documents collected from the offices of
Peter Tschopp and Jean-Marie Dufour revealed
that the process of establishing the GIAN, in the
wake of the defunct Académie internationale de
l’environnement, and obtaining funding from the
Swiss Confederation and Canton of Geneva had been
extremely taxing. Moreover, an evaluation, mandated
at short notice by the Confederation during
the summer of 2000, had created quite a stir among
the original members, particularly considering that
no activities had thus far been undertaken. Without
the perseverance and dedication of Jean-Marie
Dufour, Claude Raffestin and the founders, the
GIAN’s story would have ended there.
Even at this stage in its brief existence the GIAN suffered
from a kind of “tragedy of the commons”: everyone
had other primary responsibilities and could
only intermittently dedicate time to the Foundation.
A massive amount of effort lay immediately ahead
before the GIAN could even begin to fulfil its ambitions,
which needed further clarification and varied
according to the perspective of the main actors.
The expression that frequently came to my mind at
that time was chacun son RUIG. A report issued in
1. Randall Harbour was Executive Secretary of the GIAN from February 2001 to 31 December 2007.
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