Giandomenico Picco is an Italian diplomat who worked for twenty years for the United Nations (1973-1992), participating to important peacekeeping missions in the Balkans, in Afghanistan during the soviet occupation and in several other context of international crisis.
While carrying out these missions, Picco has repeatedly risked his life for saving innocent hostages. Despite the fear of living alone his wife and his son, he never gave up. For this reason, the UN General Secretary Javier Pérez de Cuéllar defined him a "disarmed soldier of diplomacy".
In 1999, a report of his diplomatic actions during period of the crisis of hostages in Lebanon and of the ceasefire between Iran and Iraq has been published with the title "Man Without a Gun. One Diplomat's Secret Struggle to Free the Hostages, Fight Terrorism, and End a War".
Graduated in Political Science in Padova, he majored in International Relations at the Santa Barbare University (California) and in European Studies in Amsterdam. In 1994, Picco founded the GDP Associates, a consulting firm specialized in Middle East and Central Asia's markets. In 1999, he has been appointed Under Secretary General of the United Nations for his studies on civilization. Nowadays, he holds seminars in universities of all around the world and collaborates with several journals.
For his exceptional service, Picco has been presented with the President’s Special Award by the US President H.W. Bush, the Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, the Order of the Grande Ufficiale Della Repubblica Italiana, the Order of the Cèdre du Liban and the Order of St. Michael and St. George by Queen Elizabeth II.
Reported by the Ambassador Emilio Barbarani
