Ghassan Salamé

Ghassan Salamé was born in 1951 in Lebanon. He studied public law (Saint Joseph University, University of Paris); literature (PhD in humanities, Paris III Sorbonne-Nouvelle University); and political science (PhD, Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne University). Salamé is a Christian.

Ghassan Salamé taught international relations at the American University of Beirut and Saint Joseph University in Beirut and, later, at the University of Paris.

In 2000-2003, Salamé was Lebanon’s Minister of Culture, as well as Chairman and Spokesman of the Organization Committee for the Arab Summit (March 2002) and of the Francophone Summit (October 2002) in Beirut.

Salamé presently sits on the board of the International Crisis Group (Brussels), the International Peace Institute (New York), the Open Society Foundations, the Bibliotheca Alexandrina (Egypt), and several other non-profit organizations. He was also the senior advisor to the United Nations Secretary-General from 2003 to 2006 and again in 2012. He was the political advisor to the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) in 2003, where he played a critical role in bringing together Iraqi factions. He is the chairman of the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture. Salamé also sat on the Board of the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue from 2011 to 2015. In 2016, he joined the Commission on the Rakhine State (Myanmar), which was chaired by former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.

Salame is a Member of the Global Leadership Foundation (chaired by FW de Klerk) that works to support democratic leadership, prevent and resolve conflict through mediation and promote good governance in the form of democratic institutions, open markets, human rights and the rule of law.

On 5 August 2017, he made his first official visit to Libya after assuming the role of the head of UNSMIL by arriving at Mitiga Airport in Tripoli.