Michael von der Schulenburg, former Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations, fled GDR in 1969, studied in Berlin, London and Paris, worked and lived for over 34 years in peace and development missions of the United Nations and briefly the OSCE in many countries weakened and torn by wars, by conflicts with armed non-state actors and/or by foreign military interventions. These included long-term assignments in Haiti, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq and Sierra Leone, as well as shorter assignments in Syria, Somalia, the Balkans, the Sahel and Central Asia. In 2017, he published the book On Building Peace - Rescuing the Nation-State and Saving the United Nations, AUP and published articles on UN reforms, intra-state armed conflicts, Afghanistan, Iraq and Ukraine.