Message from ACUNS President, Dr. Lise M. Howard
We are excited to invite you to the 2021 Annual Meeting: “Toward a Fit for Future United Nations.” For more than 30 years, the Annual Meeting has featured as a signature event for ACUNS. Despite the persistent uncertainties posed by the pandemic, I hope you will agree that this year’s program is rich and engaging.
We have an outstanding lineup of featured speakers. The ACUNS keynote “Holmes Lecture” will be delivered by Mark Malloch Brown, President of the Open Society Foundations. Other plenary speakers include Jean-Pierre Lacroix, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping; Melissa Fleming, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Global Communications; and former UN General Assembly President, Maria Fernanda Espinosa.
This year’s program also features roundtables organized around 12 new books that relate to the work of the UN. Moving forward, we intend to highlight new books as a key focus of the annual meeting.
We also look forward to launching, with partners at the Stimson Center, Plataforma CIPO, and Leiden University, the Global Governance Innovation Network (GGIN). This network moves us a bit out of the scholarly comfort zone of academic meetings and publishing, and into the policy world of e-dialogues and policy-oriented publications. Please join us on 24 June at 9:30 am eastern for the GGIN launch.
You may have noted that earlier this year, ACUNS took the important step of becoming an independent corporation with IRS 501(c)3 status. As we start this new chapter in our development, the ACUNS Board of Directors, Officers, Staff, and I believe it important to hear from ACUNS members about our collective aspirations for the organization. We are also eager to announce the 2021 ACUNS Dissertation Award Winner, and greet our new Board members, Dr. Kingsley Moghau and Dr. Marie McAuliffe. I therefore encourage everyone who’s interested to join a Member-Board Meeting, 23 June 2021, 9:30 am-10:30 am (New York). (Log into the Annual Meeting Portal to find the Zoom link.)
Indeed, all Zoom links will be available in the Annual Meeting Portal 24 hours in advance of the day’s sessions. By making all links available at once in the same place, we hope to facilitate some “surfing” between sessions. We have reserved 15 minutes between sessions to allow time for people to exchange contact information, and move to the next sessions.
Across the globe, many are calling for action to improve human security, dignity, social justice, global public health, protection of basic human rights, and multilateral cooperation. Despite obstacles, we are entering an era of renewed commitments to a “Common Agenda” for multilateral engagement, heralding the promise of a UN system that is truly “fit for future.”
In 2021, we ask: how can we make the UN system “fit for purpose” and “fit for future”? How can scholars, practitioners, students, science and technology experts, and community-based actors collaborate more fruitfully in devising pathways that will result in growth and prosperity for all?
The Annual Meeting remains an important gathering place for ACUNS members to consider the path ahead. Please join us!
With warm regards,
Dr. Lise M. Howard
President of ACUNS
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