DUCHÊNE, Louis-François 1927-2005

OBITUARY NOTICE—See index for CA sketch: Born February 17, 1927, in London, England; died July 12, 2005, in Brighton, East Sussex, England. Journalist, educator, and author. A former correspondent for the London-based Economist and director of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, Duchêne was also known for his early work with the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), which later evolved into the European Union. A 1947 graduate of the London School of Economics, he was a lead writer for the Manchester Guardian for three years before joining the ECSC as a press attaché in Luxembourg. Here he also helped to establish the ECSC's High Authority, which marked the beginning of efforts to integrate the economies of European nations. Duchêne believed that the future of Europe lay in stronger political and economic interdependence between its states. He also felt that it was important for Europe to establish a union with Mediterranean nations in Africa, and, indeed, later indicated he hoped that the union would continue to expand throughout the world. Leaving the ECSC in 1955, he moved to Paris to be a correspondent for the Economist. From 1958 to 1963, he was cabinet chief for the Action Committee's Documentation Center for the United States of Europe, before returning to the Economist for another four years as an editorial writer. After serving as director of the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London during the early 1970s, Duchêne was named director of the European Research Center at the University of Sussex, where he was also in charge of the school's graduate program. He retired in 1982. Duchêne was the author of The Case of the Helmeted Airman: A Study of W.H. Auden's Poetry (1972) and Jean Monnet: The First Statesman of Interdependence (1994), as well as serving as editor for several other books.

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PERIODICALS

Financial Times, August 4, 2005, p. 6.

Times (London, England), July 27, 2005, p. 47.