Athar Sultan-Khan, Dean and Professor of International Relations at the Geneva School of Diplomacy
Athar Sultan-Khan
La Grande Boissière, 1974
Dean and Professor of International Relations at the Geneva School of Diplomacy
Switzerland
Learn more about me :
I am currently Dean and Professor of International Relations at the Geneva School of Diplomacy. I have served the United Nations for 38 years in multilateral diplomacy including 15 years as Chief of Staff at the UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, and as Special Advisor to the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. I started my UN career right out of university and served in various positions with UNHCR in Africa, Asia and the Middle East and North Africa, including on several senior representation posts. I still provide special advice to the UN on an ad hoc basis, as well as to the UNHCR on diplomatic matters. But when I was at Ecolint I would have probably featured in the “least likely to succeed” section of the yearbook if it existed!
It is difficult to pick a favourite Ecolint memory, there are so many: the field trips, the free time at the end of exams, the best hamburgers in Geneva at the Roadrunner...but I would probably choose the Students' United Nations (now the Students' League of Nations). My dad worked in the foreign service but it was during my participation in the SUN (Students’ United Nations) at Ecolint that I realised that I wanted to pursue a career in diplomacy. Information was not available like it is today and I had to go to the UN library to learn about the country we were representing, Chad. I happened to go to Chad twice in my UN career. The debates and discussions between students were very interesting and it was organised exactly like the UN, with the same rules of procedure like a right of reply, order of business, etc.
Ecolint helped in many ways. In the 1970s, it was very liberal and international. Geneva was, and still is to a certain extent, very conservative and Ecolint really was a bubble. I transferred from College du Léman, a conservative Swiss private school where there was less freedom of expression by students like having long hair and wearing faded jeans and a rock and roll tee shirt, to Ecolint, where the quality of education was important, not the outfit. Ecolint encouraged students to express themselves and develop their skills through interaction with each other. We talked a lot about politics in the student lounge without the teachers and we were known to be the loud kids on the tram. Ecolint had a massive impact on my UN career and set me on the right track for the future. I owe this to Ecolint!
If I could do it all over again, I would be more careful choosing my courses, more attentive to the advice of professors and participate in more clubs. But overall, I would not change my experience too much. I have made some great friends while at Ecolint and I am in contact with many of them through the Ecolint alumni network.
My words of wisdom for Ecolint students: we live in a global community with global problems that need global solutions. Learn about multilateralism, engage in multilateral professions and try to participate at different levels. It does not necessarily have to be politics, you can have an impact also working in the private sector. You need to interact with everyone, respect different cultures, understand different perspectives that shape our world, fight against violence and discrimination based on gender, diversity or sexual orientation.