SEMINAR 2 : March 15, 2023

The UN in the 21st Century

This seminar will examine the UN system, its structure, operation and history. It explains the historical roots of the UN system, its legal and organizational structures. Attention will be given to peace and security, human rights and economic and social development. Recommended reading: Linda Fasulo's The Insider’s Guide to the UN, and Brian Urquhart’s autobiography, A Life in Peace and War.

Guest lecturer: Stéphane Dujarric, Spokesperson, United Nations

Venue: Elsevier, The Met Boardroom, 7th Floor, 230 Park Avenue, New York, NY

SEMINAR 4 : March 29, 2023

Advancing the SDGs Globally: The Case of Japan

On 6 February 2023, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres sounded the alarm bell about the state of the world and the challenge of meeting the SDGs by 2030: “Halfway to 2030, the SDGs are disappearing in the rearview mirror. Countries should come to the SDG Summit with clear benchmarks to tackle poverty and exclusion, and advance gender equality. And the world must come together to mobilize resources — now.” 

Japan has an advanced economy and is a major contributor to the United Nations budgets, assessed and voluntary, and has achieved significant progress in popularizing the SDGs in Japan. How can the high level of awareness about the SDGs and commitments from public and private leaders bridge the gaps in achieving the SDGs in Japan and beyond?

This seminar will feature a conversation between Maher Nasser, Director of Outreach, United Nations Department of Global Communications, and Keisuke Kodama, Counsellor, Permanent Mission of Japan to the United Nations.

Venue: Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP, Conference Room 44A, One Bryant Park, New York, NY

SEMINAR 6 : April 12, 2023

Women, Water and the Burden of the Quest:
An Overview of the Global Water and Sanitation Crisis

Empowering communities with access to clean water and sanitation can help change the world and alleviate the lifelong burden faced by girls and women around the world, who collectively spend 200 million hours a day gathering water. This seminar will provide an overview of the global water and sanitation crisis—including the challenges women and girls face--and identify the range of issues that need to be addressed to achieve universal coverage in the context of monitoring and evaluation and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Promising potential solutions to address SDG 6 and 2030 goals, including community-based approaches, hardware focused/engineering approaches, as well approaches to address health impacts and sustainability will also be presented.

Guest lecturer: Dr. Shannon Marquez is the Dean of Global Engagement at Columbia University.

Venue: Hungarian Mission to the UN, 227 East 52nd Street, New York, NY

SEMINAR 8 : April 26, 2023

The Global State of Gender Equality: Challenges and Opportunities

Everywhere, crises continue to exact their highest toll on women and girls. In fact, 2023 looks set to be one of the most challenging since UN Women’s establishment. And nowhere is the impact of crises on women more acute than in Afghanistan. In her recent statement Ambassador Sima Bahous related that, in January, “the Deputy Secretary-General and I were on a joint mission to Afghanistan. We went to show our solidarity with Afghan women and girls whom we met in Kabul and Herat, and to see for ourselves what it means to be a woman and a girl in a situation where every right we understand to be inherent to gender equality is questioned. We also met with Afghan women, before we travelled, in Ankara and in Islamabad. We heard their voices, and we brought their asks to the de facto authorities.

“At a time when their voices are increasingly being silenced, we will continue to raise them in every platform we can—and to use our convening privilege to safeguard space for Afghan women’s voices to be heard. We have demonstrated this commitment-in-action through the establishment of the Afghan Women’s Advisory Group, paving the way for Afghan women across the country to shape the UN’s humanitarian response plans.”

Guest lecturer: Ambassador Sima Bahous, Executive Director of UN-Women

Venue: Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP, Conference Room 44A, One Bryant Park, New York, NY

SEMINAR 10 : May 10, 2023

The Perils of a Peaking China

It is conventional wisdom that America and China are running a “superpower marathon” that may last a century. But the sharpest phase of that competition will be a decade-long sprint, and the moment of maximum danger could be just a few years away. China has entered the most perilous period in the life of a great power: it has gained the capability to upend the existing international order, but is not yet secure or powerful enough to build a new order, and soon its window to act will slam shut—unless it takes drastic action. China is behaving aggressively in the Taiwan Strait, the South China Sea, and other areas not because it is a confident, rising power, but because it is a peaking power whose economy is slowing while its rivals multiply. America will still need a long-term strategy for competing with China. But first, it needs a near-term strategy for navigating the danger zone ahead. 

Guest lecturer: Michael Beckley, Associate Professor of Political Science, Tufts University

Venue: Phillips Nizer LLP, 485 Lexington Avenue (bet. 46th and 47th Sts), 14th Floor, New York, NY