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Gunnar Jarring

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Gunnar Jarring
Born
Gunnar Valfrid Jarring

(1907-10-12)12 October 1907
Brunnby, Sweden
Died29 May 2002(2002-05-29) (aged 94)
Stockholm, Sweden
Alma materLund University
OccupationDiplomat
Years active1933–1991
Spouse
Agnes Charlier
​
​
(m. 1932; died 1999)​
Children1
RelativesCarl Charlier (father in law)

Gunnar Valfrid Jarring (12 October 1907 – 29 May 2002) was a Swedish diplomat and Turkologist.

Early life

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Jarring was born on 12 October 1907 in Brunnby, Malmöhus County, Sweden, the son of Gottfrid Jönsson, a farmer, and his wife Betty (née Svensson).[1] He had four siblings.[2] Jarring earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Lund University in 1928, a Licentiate Degree in 1931, and a Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1933[1] with his dissertation Studien zu einer osttürkischen Lautlehre ("Studies in Eastern Turkic Phonology").[3] The same year he was appointed docent in Turkish linguistics at Lund University. Jarring also served as curator of Helsingborgs-Landskrona Student Nation at Lund University in 1933.[1] He taught Turkic languages at the university for the rest of the 1930s. Jarring was also a board member of the Svenska orientsällskapet ("Swedish Oriental Society") from 1936 to 1940 and of the Centralbyrån i Lund för populära vetenskapliga föreläsningar ("The Central Office in Lund for Popular Scientific Lectures") at Lund University from 1939 to 1941.[1] He conducted study trips to, among others, Chinese Turkestan 1929–1930, to Moscow and Leningrad in 1934, to the Northwest India and Afghanistan 1935–1936, and to the Near East in 1940.[4]

Diplomatic career

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Gunnar Jarring (far left) with his wife, Agnes Charlier, Prime Minister of Sweden Tage Erlander and wife Aina Erlander and President John F. Kennedy, 1961.

Jarring entered the Swedish diplomatic service and worked for the Swedish foreign service as attaché at their embassy in Ankara in 1940.[1] He was head of Department B at the Swedish legation in Tehran in 1941 and chargé d'affaires ad interim in Tehran and Baghdad in 1945. Jarring served as acting first legation secretary in 1945 and acting legation counselor and chargé d'affaires ad interim in Addis Abeba in 1946. Jarring was then Swedish envoy to India in 1948 and to Ceylon in 1950 as well as to Iran, Iraq and Pakistan in 1951.[1] He served as director (utrikesråd) and head of the Political Department at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in Stockholm from 1952 to 1956 and as an expert in the United Nations General Assembly in 1955.[1]

After several other diplomatic missions, he was Sweden's Permanent Representative to the United Nations from 1956 to 1958, and sat in the Security Council for the last two of those years.[1] He was ambassador to the United States from 1958 to 1964, and to the Soviet Union from 1964 to 1973, as well as Mongolia from 1965 to 1973.[5] In that capacity he signed on behalf of his country on the Outer Space Treaty in January 1967.

After the 1967 Six-Day War and the adoption of UN Security Council Resolution 242, Jarring was appointed by the UN Secretary-General U Thant as a Special Representative of the Secretary-General for the Middle East peace process, the so-called Jarring Mission, during which he worked with the Four Powers who included United States UN Permanent Representative Ambassador Charles W. Yost. Jarring's methods of negotiation were used unsuccessfully until the 1973 Yom Kippur War. The mission officially lasted until 1991.[5] The role of mediator in the Middle East conflict made Jarring decide not to give any interviews or comments, giving him the famous nickname "The Clam", sometimes even "The Super Clam".[6][2]

Gunnar Jarring continued to publish studies on Eastern Turkic languages throughout his diplomatic career and after retirement. He is one of the few people to ever be mentioned by name in a United Nations Security Council Resolution, appearing in Resolution 331. His mention has also been made in the UN Security Councils's Resolution 123 dated 21 February 1957 on the issue of Jammu & Kashmir.

Personal life

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In 1932, he married Agnes Charlier (1909–1999), the daughter of professor Carl Charlier and Siri Dorotea (née Leissner). He was the father of Eva (born 1949).[1]

List of Publications

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Selected books

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  • Jarring, Gunnar (1981). Memoarer 1939-1952 [Memoirs 1939-1952] (in Swedish). Stockholm: Bonnier. ISBN 91-0-045350-1. SELIBR 7146495.
  • Jarring, Gunnar (1989). Utan glasnost och perestrojka: memoarer 1964-1973 [Without glasnost and perestroika: memoirs 1964-1973] (in Swedish). Stockholm: Bonnier. ISBN 91-0-047756-7. SELIBR 7147815.
  • Jarring, Gunnar (1979). Åter till Kashgar: memoarer i nuet [Return to Kashgar: memoirs in the present] (in Swedish). Stockholm: Bonnier. ISBN 91-0-044123-6. SELIBR 7146060.
  • Jarring, Gunnar (1939). On the distribution of Turk tribes in Afghanistan: An attempt at a preliminary classification. Lunds universitets årsskrift. Första avdelningen, Teologi, juridik och humanistiska ämnen, 99-0507131-8 ; 35:4. Lund: Gleerup. SELIBR 1378130.
  • Jarring, Gunnar (1938). Uzbek texts from Afghan Turkestan: with glossary. Lunds universitets årsskrift. Första avdelningen, Teologi, juridik och humanistiska ämnen, 99-0507131-8 ; 34:2. Lund: Gleerup. SELIBR 1378125.

Selected articles

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Awards and decorations

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Honours

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Harnesk, Paul, ed. (1962). Vem är vem? 1, Stor-Stockholm [Who's Who? 1, Greater Stockholm] (in Swedish) (2nd ed.). Stockholm: Vem är vem. p. 641. SELIBR 53509.
  2. ^ a b "Gunnar Jarring -- U.N. Mideast Envoy, 94". The New York Times. Associated Press. 2 June 2002. Retrieved 7 January 2019.
  3. ^ Jarring, Gunnar (1933). Studien zu einer osttürkischen Lautlehre [Studies in Eastern Turkic Phonology] (in German). Lund: Borelius. SELIBR 1356503.
  4. ^ Vem är det: svensk biografisk handbok. 1945 [Who is it: Swedish biographical handbook. 1945] (in Swedish). Stockholm: Norstedt. 1945. p. 535. SELIBR 8261511.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Salander Mortensen, Jill, ed. (1996). Vem är det: svensk biografisk handbok. 1997 [Who is it: Swedish biographical handbook. 1997] (in Swedish). Stockholm: Norstedt. p. 553. ISBN 91-1-960852-7. SELIBR 3681533.
  6. ^ Törnvall, Gunilla (26 November 2007). "Gunnar Jarring – livspusslare och globetrotter". Populär Historia (in Swedish) (12). Retrieved 7 January 2019.
  7. ^ "Matriklar (D 1)" [Directory (D 1)]. Kungl. Maj:ts Ordens arkiv (in Swedish). Royal Court of Sweden. 1970–1979. p. 176. Retrieved 18 December 2024 – via National Archives of Sweden.
  8. ^ "ORÐUHAFASKRÁ" (in Icelandic). President of Iceland. Retrieved 4 February 2022.
  9. ^ "Tildelinger av ordener og medaljer" [Awards of medals and medals] (in Norwegian). Royal Court of Norway. Retrieved 4 February 2022.

Further reading

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Diplomatic posts
Preceded by
None
 Envoy of Sweden to India
1948–1951 		Succeeded by
Per Wijkman
Preceded by
None
 Envoy of Sweden to Ceylon
1950–1951 		Succeeded by
Per Wijkman
Preceded by Envoy of Sweden to Iran
1951–1952 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Envoy of Sweden to Iraq
1951–1952 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Envoy of Sweden to Pakistan
1951–1952 		Succeeded by
Preceded by
Oscar Thorsing
 Permanent Representative to the United Nations
1956–1958 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Ambassador of Sweden to the United States
1958–1964 		Succeeded by
Preceded by
Rolf R:son Sohlman
 Ambassador of Sweden to the Soviet Union
1964–1973 		Succeeded by
Preceded by
None
 Ambassador of Sweden to Mongolia
1965–1973 		Succeeded by
Preceded by
Position established
 UN Sec. Gen. Special Representative to the Middle East
Nov. 23, 1967–March 21, 1991 		Succeeded by
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