Jean Krasno
Lecturer, Department of Political Science
Dr. Jean E. Cullander Krasno is lecturer and a tenured member of the faculty in the Department of Political Science at the City College of New York (CCNY) where she held the position of Director of the MA Program in International Relations for eight years. She is also a lecturer at Columbia University in the Political Science Department and was a Senior Fellow and lecturer at Yale University from 1995 to 2016. She was Executive Director of the Academic Council on the United Nations System from 1998 to 2003 when the organization was housed at Yale. At Yale, she conducted the Yale-UN Oral History Project with James Sutterlin, which is housed at the Dag Hammarskjöld Library. Recently in 2023, she started up the UN Oral History project again with a focus on mediation and negotiation.
Dr. Krasno has taught courses on the United Nations, UN peacekeeping, International Law, International Organization, Climate Change, Biodiversity and the Political Process, Research Methods, Peace Making and Negotiation and Nuclear Security and Non-Proliferation. Dr. Krasno was authorized by former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to organize his papers for publication which was published as a five volume set by Lynne Rienner Publishers in March 2012. She was then asked by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to publish his papers online through JSTOR and this curated set is now available. In working with Kofi Annan on his papers and later with Ban Ki-moon, Dr. Krasno has discovered many previously classified papers that dealt with many global issues, including climate change and the formation of the MDGs and the SDGs. Eradicating poverty, improving the lives of the most vulnerable, and addressing climate change are some of the themes that have emerged from her research in reading and curating these collected papers for publication. In 2017 and 2018, she was asked by the Executive Office of the Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, to assist in writing, editing, and organizing the Annual Report of the UN Secretary-General.
Education
The United Nations: Confronting the Challenges of a Global Society, editor, (2004), Lynne Rienner Publishers; Leveraging for Success in UN Peace Operations, editor with Don Daniel and Bradd Hayes, (2003) Greenwood/Praeger Publishers; The United Nations and Iraq: Defanging the Viper, co-authored with James Sutterlin (2003), Greenwood/Praeger Publishers; “Brazil” in Robert Chase, Emily Hill, and Paul Kennedy, The Pivotal States: A New Framework for U.S. Policy in the Developing World (1998), St. Martin’s Press; Personality, Political Leadership and Decision Making: A Global Perspective, published by Praeger Publishers in 2015. She co-authored with Elisabeth Szeli a book, Banning the Bomb: the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons published in 2021 by Lynne Rienner Publishers and also with Lynne Rienner Publishers 2023: The United Nations: Policy and Practice. In June 2024, Krasno and Szeli published a journal article in Peace and Nuclear Disarmament (Routledge publication), entitled, “The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons: Strengths, Weaknesses and Current Status. She also published a novel through Amazon Publishing titled: The Train to Skeleton Coast: A Tale of Murder and the Struggle for Freedom, fall 2022. She has a new novel, Secrets and the Disappeared: a Tale of Brazil, forthcoming published by Austin Macauley, London.
Documentary film: Dr. Krasno also wrote, directed and produced a documentary film on UN peacekeeping released at the UN in 2004. The title is: Uncertain Soil: The Story of UN Peacekeeping. She led her team of film makers and camera recorders to Western Sahara, Sierra Leone, Cyprus, and Kosovo where they gathered their own live footage and interviewed many UN and non-UN people directly involved in the UN missions. She also worked with the UN video library to gather other footage.
Books
The United Nations: Confronting the Challenges of a Global Society, editor, (Lynne Rienner, 2004)
Leveraging for Success in UN Peace Operations, editor with Don Daniel and Bradd Hayes, (Greenwood/Praeger, 2003)
The United Nations and Iraq: Defanging the Viper (Greenwood/Praeger, 2003) w/ James Sutterlin.
“Brazil” in Robert Chase, Emily Hill, and Paul Kennedy eds., The Pivotal States: A New Framework for U.S. Policy in the Developing World (1998), St. Martin’s Press.
