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ID:
184655
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| Summary/Abstract |
Today, I have the rare honor of giving the annual John W. Holmes Memorial Lecture for a second time, the first time being in 2007.1 That gives me the distinct opportunity to reflect on what I said the first time, and whether it has held up or not. In the 2007 lecture, I speculated that it would take a big global shock or disruption to create the conditions for a real “San Francisco moment,” as it is often called—a major UN reset as momentous as the 1945 conference in San Francisco that led to its birth. Since then, there have been a number of major crises, possible San Francisco moments—the financial crisis of 2008, the current dramatic global public health crisis of COVID, and the longer running but no less dramatic crisis of climate change—and yet, if we’re frank, the UN remains stubbornly unchanged. There have been reforms at the margin, but we have not seen the response to these crises that we might have hoped for and even anticipated. The financial crisis kicked the Group of 20 (G-20) up a notch or two on the annual calendar of such events, from a meeting of finance ministers to a significant meeting of heads of state. Such a boost in its authority could perhaps have signaled the beginnings of the makings of an economic Security Council. After all, the G-20 brings together the top twenty economies in the world, representing the clear majority of global gross domestic product. But it has been as cautious and conservative as its older sibling, the Group of 7.
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| 2 |
ID:
185678
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| 3 |
ID:
184091
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| Summary/Abstract |
At the very outset, I want to set to rest the myth that the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan poses a challenge to the international system as presently constituted. In fact, exactly the opposite is the case, for this event reinforces the Westphalian logic that, despite recent attempts to chip away at it, continues to form the basis of international order.
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| 4 |
ID:
184648
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| Summary/Abstract |
Brian Urquhart was the second person to enter the international civil service of the United Nations. He witnessed the creation of the world organization at close range, played an important part in the invention of what later on would be labeled the “Blue Helmets,” worked closely with the first five Secretaries-General and rose to under-secretary-general himself. Even after his retirement in 1986, he remained a source of counsel and advice for those engaged in the efforts to organize an ever changing and difficult world. His death at the age of 101 marks the passing of the “first generation”
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