The man credited with putting muscle into UN peacekeeping, Jean-Marie Guehenno, will leave his position on June 1, according to Le Monde newspaper. Guehenno had been widely credited with the restoring the reputation of U.N. “peace operations” as an effective and relatively agency in helping conflict-torn countries in Africa and elsewhere return to stability after civil wars and other strife.

Under his auspices, UN peacekeeping forces increased in size to become the second-largest military force operating outside their country – behind the size of U.S. expeditionary forces.

Guehenno, appointed eight years ago by then-Secretary General Kofi Annan, played an important role in changing the philosophy of peacekeeping after a period in the 1990s when the UN’s reputation was damaged by fiascos in Bosnia and elsewhere. Guehenno told European Affairs in 2006, in an article entitled Contemporary Peacekeeping Is State-Building, that he had lead the UN toward more “robust peacekeeping” — meaning readiness to use force when necessary to implement a peacekeeping mission.

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