World Bulletin
UNA-USA’s Members Day Tackles Thorny Subjects
By Roger Nokes
March 3 – More than 550 members and prospective members of UNA- USA convened on Feb. 19 at the UN for the Mid-Atlantic Regional Conference and 2010 UNA-USA Member's Day. The occasion was organized by members of the UNA-USA Southern New York State Division as well as other members from the mid-Atlantic region. This year's event was titled "A Year of Crises: Opportunities for Change," a theme that framed the conversations between panelists and the audience, who discussed Afghanistan, the global economy and nuclear proliferation, among other issues.
Ambassador Byrganym Aitimova, permanent representative of Kazakhstan and acting president of the UN General Assembly, started the event by saying that the word “crisis” was an appropriate term given the many serious matters facing members at the UN. These include climate change, global economic development and disarmament, but Aitimova noted that these problems can be more adequately addressed with US efforts.
Thomas Miller, UNA-USA president, concurred, saying, "US policy is particularly welcome with its emphasis on collective action." He added that not only could US policy could make the work of the UN easier, but also that it was the job of UNA-USA members to "help the UN help itself" by publicizing and promoting the institution’s work through activities similar to the UNA-USA Iowa Division's trip to the UN Climate Change conference in Copenhagen last December.
Robert Orr, the assistant secretary-general for policy coordination and strategic planning, amended the event’s title by saying that "it is not a year of crisis, but an era of crisis that has many opportunities." Orr added that items on this full menu are interrelated and come to the UN to be addressed. He used the example of the relationship among food prices, climate change and conflict, saying, "While food prices have gone down in the West, they are causing social instability in the developing world." When asked about the role that young people could play in combating these problems, Orr cited that "these issues will play out over all of your lifetime."
The event also highlighted other themes that influence policy and events at the UN. For example, during the panel titled "Afghanistan: From Ramping Up to Exit Ramp," Hassan Abbas, a Bernard Schwartz Fellow at the Asia Society , spoke of the importance of global organizations taking a perspective based on a period of time longer than the last few months. When asked by moderator Linda Fasulo if recent developments in Afghanistan represented a turning point, Abbas replied that it was too early to judge.
Jeffrey Laurenti, a senior fellow and director of foreign policy programs at the Century Foundation and member of the UNA-USA board, noted the shift in US policy toward emphasizing lasting peace over victory.
The Afghanistan panel emphasized the sheer amount of problems being handled by the UN there. Valentin Gatzinski, in the Afghanistan office of operations, said that the UN handled "everything that walks under the sun in Afghanistan."
That applies to the other parts of the world, too, as the four panels attested. When discussing the economy, for example, it was impossible to avoid discussing the role of women in development; and when discussing nuclear disarmament, it was impossible to avoid talking about the current domestic turmoil in Iran. Also paramount to the discussions was the fact that the UN is composed of member states with widely differing perspectives and interests. Indeed, the UN not only must work with member states, but also has to manage the ramifications of decisions and acts made by other international bodies like the G-20 and the World Trade Organization. This situation was apparent during the discussion on the global economy, when the delayed status of the World Trade Organization's Doha Round came up. It was noted that the successful resolution of these trade negotiations could stimulate the global economy and possibly help some of the world's poorest nations climb out of extreme poverty.
The event generated new members in the mid-Atlantic region as well as a new UNA-USA Student Alliance Group, which registered just days after attending. In addition to garnering new members, the event brought together dedicated activists from as far away as Milwaukee and Orlando, Fla.
Roger Nokes is the communications and membership services manager at UNA-USA.
Keywords:
UNA-USA, UN, Afghanistan, UNA Student Alliance
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