“Sometimes it takes a generation to repair a country,” says Jean-Marie Guéhenno, President of International Crisis Group and former head of United Nations peacekeeping.

“What we see is that crises are much harder to end today than they were 20 years ago because the agendas have become more complicated, more transnational, and once conflict starts you really don’t know when it ends,” he said, as he stressed the need to focus on conflict prevention.

Mr. Guéhenno also called on developed countries to do more to respond to the humanitarian crises being created by these protracted conflicts.

He spoke with International Peace Institute Senior Adviser Warren Hoge as part of a Global Observatory interview series on international migration and the refugee crisis.

Other interviews in this series: 

Pierre Krähenbühl, Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees.

Peter Maurer, President of the International Committee of the Red Cross.