François Duchene

François Duchene    (journalist, spook)
Born	17 February 1927
Died	12 July 2005 (Age 78)
Nationality	British?, French?
Alma mater	Colet Court, St Paul's school, London School of Economics
Spouse	Anne Purves
Member of	Action Committee for the United States of Europe, International Institute for Strategic Studies
Interests	• the Economist • Jean Monnet
Spooky key adviser to Jean Monnet  International Institute for Strategic Studies/Director In office 1969 - 1974 Preceded by Alastair Buchan Succeeded by Christoph Bertram

Francois Duchene was a key adviser to Jean Monnet. He was present at the laying of the foundation stone of the European Union, the European Coal and Steel Community.

Career

Duchêne was born in London to a French-speaking Swiss father and a French mother. Much of his childhood was spent in the luxurious surroundings of the Ritz hotel, where his father was manager. During national service, it became clear that he was better at analysis than combat, and, in 1948, he was dispatched to occupied Austria as a lieutenant in intelligence.

Duchêne was helped to his first job, as a leader writer on the Manchester Guardian (1949-52), by Professor RH Tawney, who had taught him at the LSE. This led to the two decisive encounters of his life: the first with a fellow Guardian journalist, Anne Purves, a highly talented writer who became his wife; and the second with Monnet, who read Duchêne's series of articles in support of the European Coal and Steel Community and invited the 25-year-old to join him in planning "the new Europe". (The was they met sounds a bit contrived. His series of articles might have been commission work and the new job with Monnet arranged behind the scenes. The whole European Union idea was financed from Washington through cutouts.)

Duchêne accepted Monnet's invitation to Luxembourg, and, between 1952 and 1955, was English language information officer at the high authority of the European Coal and Steel Community, the precursor of the EU Commission, where Monnet was president. When Monnet returned to Paris in 1955 to advance the next stage of the EU, Duchêne followed, working until 1958 both as a correspondent for the Economist and an adviser in Monnet's core team.

Monnet's method was to develop a network of politicians and trades unionists around Europe, whose influence he would use to get his ideas accepted, and, in 1958, he invited Duchêne to become director of his private office, at the so-called Action Committee for the United States of Europe.

In 1963, he moved to Brighton, where he returned to leader-writing, this time for the Economist. During the next few years, he was a Ford Foundation fellow (1967-69), director of the International Institute for Strategic Studies (1969-74) and then professor and director of the newly formed Centre for European Research at Sussex University (1974-84). In these roles, he was central to the debate on Europe's future, east-west relations and many other aspects of international affairs, maintaining close contact with numerous statesmen, including Zbigniew Brzezinski and other leading figures in Washington.

For nearly six decades, he produced a steady stream of ideas - in books, lectures and articles - about how to restructure Europe in the new ways that Monnet sought. In later life he wrote a biography of Monnet.

 

Events Participated in

Event	Start	End	Location(s)	Description
Bilderberg/1969	9 May 1969	11 May 1969	Denmark Hotel Marienlyst Elsinore	The 18th Bilderberg meeting, with 85 participants
Bilderberg/1970	17 April 1970	19 April 1970	Switzerland Hotel Quellenhof Bad Ragaz	the 19th Bilderberg meeting, in Switzerland.
Bilderberg/1971	23 April 1971	25 April 1971	US Vermont Woodstock Woodstock Inn	The 20th Bilderberg, 89 guests

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