| UN Secretary-General
Kofi Annan created a 16-person High-Level Panel on Threats, Challenges,
and Change to assess present risks to international order and to recommend
collective and effective action to achieve sustainable peace and security.
Beginning in Spring 2004, the Ralph Bunche Institute hosted several workshops
with the United
Nations Foundation
to provide guidance to the research staff of the High-Level Panel. This
collaborative effort drew on experts from a wide-range of fields and
institutions to discuss issues of crucial important to the United Nations.
Click here for more information on the United
Nations Foundation's work to support the High-Level Panel.
Another workshop was hosted by the New
York Liaison Office of the Academic Council on the United Nations System.
“Curbing Terrorism: Ingredients of Effective International
Action” ( March 4, 2004 )
As part of efforts to provide external support to inform deliberations
of the High-Level Panel on Threats, Challenges, and Change, the Bunche
Institute and the UN Foundation sponsored a workshop to focus on threats
from and solutions to terrorism.
Discussion Questions:
- How fundamentally has Al Qaeda transformed international perceptions
of the threat posed by “terrorism” to international peace and security?
And how urgently do states and publics in different regions view the
dangers from terrorism?
- How applicable are the traditional models and mechanisms (largely
based on military and intelligence) for suppressing threats to international
peace and security in dealing with security challenges posed by terrorism?
- What are the means that states and international organizations
have found most effective in “draining the swamp” (in both the short
and long term) that sustain terrorist violence? Is it sensible to speak
of addressing root causes?
- What specifically could be done by or through the Untied Nations
system effectively to contain and suppress terrorist violence, either
through international law, monitoring and exhorting of states, or direct
program initiatives?
- How might he ideas and lines of argument advanced in the various
briefing papers be sharpened to better inform the debate of the High-Level
Panel?
Participants :
Zeid al-Hussein, Permanent Mission of
Jordan to the United Nations
José Alvarez,
Columbia University
Daniel Benjamin, Center for Strategic & International
Studies
Chantal de Jonge Outdraat, The Johns Hopkins University
Alistair Edgar,
Academic Council on the United Nations System
Hiroshi Ishikawa, Permanent
Mission of Japan to the United Nations
Maivân Clech Lâm,
Academic Council on the United Nations System – New
York Liaison Office, Ralph Bunche Institute
Jeffrey Laurenti, United Nations
Foundation
Tom Leney, United Nations Foundation
Salim Lone, United Nations
Edward C. Luck, Columbia University
Minh-Thu Pham, United Nations Foundation
Giandomenico Picco, GDP Associates,
Inc.
Pablo Policzer, University of British Columbia
James Sutterlin, Yale
University
Tan York Chor, Permanent Mission of Singapore to the United
Nations
Karin von Hippel, King's College, London
Curtis Ward, Counter-Terrorism
Committee, United Nations
Thomas G. Weiss (chair), Ralph Bunche Institute
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“Threats from Non-state Actors: How Grave, How Remedied?” (
March 4, 2004 )
As part of efforts to provide external support to inform deliberations
of the High-Level Panel on Threats, Challenges, and Change, the Bunche
Institute and the UN Foundation sponsored a workshop devoted to understanding
the dynamics of non-states actors and approaches of the international community.
Discussion Questions :
- How serious are the dangers that-in comparison with terrorist
groups-armed non-state actors such as organized crime networks, militias,
and paramilitaries with de facto control over territory pose
to the security of populations and states? Do they rise to the level
of threats to regional stability, warranting the attention of international
security institutions?
- How can the international community deal effectively
with threats arising from organized criminal networks?
- Given traditional
deference to state sovereignty, when criminal networks have penetrated
and taken over the state apparatus (a so-called “mafia
republic”), how can international actors deal effectively with
the dangers emanating from the state harboring the existence of
criminal networks?
- Alternatively, where a state may have the will but not the
means to suppress organized crime in its territory, how best can
international actors assist in its suppression?
- What is the international community's stake in controlling
armed militia groups in areas effectively outside a state's control,
or paramilitaries that may be in collusion with the state—and what means
are available to international actors to control these groups?
- Are existing international mechanisms adequate for suppressing
the violent activities of these groups and disrupting their resource
flows (e.g., drugs, women, diamonds, or small arms), or are new devices
and authority needed?
- How might the ideas and lines of argument advanced in the
various briefing papers be sharpened to better inform the debate of
the High-Level Panel?
Participants : Daniel Benjamin, Center for Strategic & International Studies
Patrick
Chuasoto, Premanent Mission of the Philippines to the United Nations
David Cortright, Fourth Freedom Forum
Chantal de Jonge Outdraat, The Johns
Hopkins University
Alistair Edgar,
Academic Council on the United Nations System
Jacques
Fomerand, United Nations (retired)
Austin Hare, United Nations
Foundation
James O.C. Jonah, Ralph Bunche
Institute
Maivân Clech Lâm,
Academic Council on the United Nations System – New
York Liaison Office, Ralph Bunche Institute
Jeffrey Laurenti (chair), United
Nations Foundation
Tom Leney, United
Nations Foundation
Salim Lone, United Nations
Minh-Thu Pham, United Nations Foundation
Pablo Policzer, University of
British Columbia
José Nicolás
Rivas, Permanent Mission of Colombia to the United Nations
Gert Rosenthal, Permanent Mission of Guatemala to the United
Nations
James
Sutterlin, Yale University
Karin von Hippel, King's College, London
Thomas G. Weiss, Ralph Bunche
Institute
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“United Nations and Global
Security” (March 3, 2004)
As part of efforts to improve linkages between universities and research
centers in the North and the South working on UN-related issues, the Bunche
Institute acting as the New York Liaison Office of the Academic Council
on the UN System (ACUNS) and the UN Foundation sponsored a workshop to
explore philosophical, operational, and financial issues related to possible
future programming. Specifically, this session examined three aspects:
how to link academics and researchers (particularly those from the South)
to the UN and UN-related issues, how to utilize current policy deliberations
and materials developed by the Secretary-General's High-Level Panel on
Threats, Challenges, and Changes in academic settings, and how an advisory
body can bridge scholar and practitioner communities.
Discussion Questions :
- What are the objectives of the project?
- What lessons have been learned from previous efforts such
as the Global Universities Network, and UN and UNESCO Fellowship Programs?
- What kind of networks will be required to establish this
project? What is a logical timeframe and how can it best be implemented?
- Can the resources available through the University for Peace,
UN University, UN Staff College, and the UN Intellectual History Project
provide opportunities for a synergy of efforts?
- What are the options for
educational components to the project?
- Should the project establish paper prizes for quality research
by faculty, graduate, university, and secondary students on global
challenges?
- Should the project develop curriculum, syllabi, and materials
for use in schools and universities to promote research on global
challenges?
- Should the project augment the project's website to include
interactive features that enable networks on these issues? Should
a “discussion
thread” that allows UN officials to respond to questions be organized
Participants :
Tatiana Carayannis, Ralph Bunche Institute
Margaret Crahan, Hunter College
Michael Doyle, Columbia University Law
School
Alistair Edgar, Academic Council on the United Nations System
Jacques
Fomerand, United Nations (retired)
Johanna Mendelson Forman, United Nations
Foundation
Maivân Clech Lâm, Academic Council on the United
Nations System – New
York Liaison Office, Ralph Bunche Institute
Stacey Jones, United Nations
Foundation
Jeffrey Laurenti, United Nations Foundation
Tom Leney (chair), United
Nations Foundation
Robin Ludwig, United Nations Fund for International
Partnerships
Oscar Vilhena Vieira, Sur-Human Rights University Network
Thomas G. Weiss,
Ralph Bunche Institute
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