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UNSP Working Lunch Series with UN Ambassadors
During the academic year 2009/2010, Prof. Lindenmayer launched a new initiative entitled “Working Lunch Series with UN Ambassadors” that seeks to give SIPA students access to the current thinking of the UN’s diplomatic community, while at the same time providing UN Ambassadors the opportunity to hear students’ views on topics of mutual concerns and interest. It is meant to continue strengthening the relationship between the United Nations and SIPA and create an ongoing dialogue between the world of international politics and academia.
The first lunch of this kind was hosted by Ambassador Christian Wenaweser, Permanent Representative of Liechtenstein to the UN and President of the Assembly of State Parties to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) on December 1st, 2009. The lunch was an opportunity for students to learn more about the history of the ICC and the challenges facing the court today, and in particular the tension inherent in seeking justice and building peace at the same time.
Ambassador Gerard Araud, Permanent Representative of France to the UN hosted a lunch for SIPA students on January 29, 2010. He generously invited SIPA students to his residence and over a three-course meal served with elegant wines he discussed the UN system from the perspective of a P-5 and shared his views on issues as diverse as UN reform, nuclear proliferation and the war in Afghanistan. The Ambassador was remarkably candid in his answers and the students enjoyed the French humor and wit with which he presented challenging issues.
On February 11th, 2010, the Permanent Representative of Singapore, Ambassador Vanu Gopala Menon hosted a lunch on “The G20 and the UN "Global Governance". Over a generous Singaporean feast he discussed the problems inherent in creating parallel global governance structures and shared with students what an organization like the G20 means for smaller and less imposing countries and for the international system as a whole.
On February 26th, 2010, the Permanent Representative of Brazil, Ambassador Viotti, hosted a lunch on the subject of “Rebuilding Haiti”. Other lunches in the Spring Semester include one hosted by the Permanent Representative of Switzerland, Peter Maurer, on “the UN Landscape and the Challenges of the 21st Century: the Decision-making Process in Changing World Politics. Reforms: who decides, who pays? Is the UN delivering?”, as well as a lunch hosted by the Ambassador of Egypt on the subject of “the Responsibility to Protect – the perspective from members of the non-aligned movement”.