Building a More Effective United Nations: Opportunities for the Obama Administration

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April 23 2009, 8:30 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.

Part I: Video of Event (Windows Media Player) Part II: Video of Event (Windows Media Player) Part III: Video of Event (Windows Media Player) Part IV: Video of Luncheon (Windows Media Player)

Event Details

Conference Sponsor: United Nations Association of the National Capital Area (UNA-NCA)

Conference Co-Sponsors: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Center for Strategic and International Studies, Council on Foreign Relations, International Law Section of the American Bar Association, United Nations Association of the USA, United Nations Foundation, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars

Honorary Conference Co-Chairs: Lee Hamilton and James Leach

[Note: Names with asterisks are confirmed. Others have been invited]

8:30 a.m. Registration opens

9:00 a.m. Opening plenary session; The Stake of the United States in a Better Functioning United Nations
Introduction: A. Edward Elmendorf, President, UNA-NCA
Welcome: Lee Hamilton, President, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars
Presiding: Thomas Pickering, former United States Ambassador to the United Nations
Keynote address: James Traub, columnist and author, “The Best Intentions: Kofi Annan and the United Nations in the Era of American World Power”

10:00 a.m. Coffee break

10:15 a.m. Plenary session: Overcoming Obstacles to UN Reform
Presiding: Thomas Pickering
Panel: Munir Akram, former Pakistan Ambassador to the United Nations; Stuart Holliday, President, Meridian International Center; Paul Kavanagh, Ambassador of Ireland to the United Nations


12:20 p.m. Luncheon
Presiding: Karen Mulhauser, President-Elect, UNA-NCA
Speaker: Richard Williamson, former US Ambassador to the UN Commission on Human Rights, and former United States Special Envoy to Sudan

1:50 p.m. Simultaneous break-out sessions on overcoming obstacles
1. Relations between the United States (and other Western states) and the G-77: Is a “grand bargain” on UN reform possible? (Moderator: Teresa Whitfield, Senior Fellow and Advisor on UN Policy, Center on International Cooperation, New York University)
2. The challenge of UN budgetary and management reform: What should be the relative authority of the UN Secretary-General and the UN General Assembly? (Moderator: David Birenbaum, former US Ambassador for UN Management and Reform)
3. Security Council reform: How can the Council, and other major UN organs, be brought into line with the changing global distribution of power? (Moderator: Stewart Patrick, Director, Program on International Institutions and Global Governance, Council on Foreign Relations)

3:45 p.m. Closing plenary:
Moderator: Princeton Lyman, former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs
Brief reports from break-out sessions
Remarks by Administration representative: Esther Brimmer. U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs
Windup speaker on the role of civil society in furthering UN strengthening: Morton Halperin, Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress
Closing of conference: Jim Leach, former Congressman (R, IA)

5:00 p.m. Adjournment

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