The project is publicizing the main conclusions as widely as possible in order to stimulate debate on the importance of the UN in the 21st century. The 60th anniversary of the UN in October 2005 provided the impetus to accelerate dissemination efforts as well as to stimulate additional exploration of the UN's record by academics and graduate students, by journalists and policy analysts, in both developed and especially developing countries.

PAST EVENTS: 2007

Paris, France, 25 October 2007
UNESCO General Conference, "Citizens and Global Governance: United in Action"
Richard Jolly presented "The UNIHP and the 3rd UN."

New York, New York, 20 September 2007
2007 Conference of the Human Development and Capability Association (HDCA): "Ideas Changing History"
Richard Jolly gave the closing keynote on the theme of "The Power of UN Ideas and the Challenges for the Human Development and Capability Association."

Beijing, China, 18-21 September 2007
Special Conference of the International Association for Research in Income and Wealth
Michael Ward gave a presentation, "China's Growth and Global Inequality; Puzzle or Paradox?" which drew attention to the way changes in national definitions and classifications and the adoption of UN international statistical standards influences the interpretation of historical and comparative economic performance. It is to be published in a special edition of The Review of Income and Wealth.

New York, New York, 18 September 2007
2007 Conference of the Human Development and Capability Association (HDCA): "Ideas Changing History"
Thomas G. Weiss presented “Oral Histories and Understanding Multilateralism: The Experience of the United Nations Intellectual History Project.”

Lisbon, Portugal, 22-29 August 2007
Annual Conference of the International Statistical Institute
Michael Ward presented the paper, "Indicators; Proxies for Policies?" for the invited paper session, "Do Users Need Indicators or Statistics?" The paper was published in the Conference Proceedings.

Copenhagen, Denmark, 8-11 July 2007
World Health Economics Conference
Michael Ward presented the paper, "Towards an International System of Health Accounts [SHA]."

The Hague, The Netherlands, 5-7 July 2007
The Society of International Development (SID) 50th Anniversary International Congress
Louis Emmerij spoke about "Opportunities and Challenges facing the Development Community," with particular reference to the UN.

London, England, 5 July 2007
United Nations Association-UK
Thomas G. Weiss and Sam Daws launched the Oxford Handbook on the United Nations. The event was opened with introductory remarks by Sir Mark Malloch Brown, Minister of State, Foreign & Commonwealth Office and Lord Hannay of Chiswick, Chair, UNA-UK. Presentations were made by Adam Roberts, University of Oxford; Ambassador Nick Thorne, UK Mission to the UN (Geneva) and Ngaire Woods, University of Oxford. Please click here to see the event featured in the UNA-UK newletter, New World.

The Hague, The Netherlands, 5 July 2007
Society for International Development, 50th Anniversary Conference
Richard Jolly gave a panel presentation on "The Rise and Fall of Multilateralism in the Management of International Affairs."

Geneva, Switzerland, 28 June 2007
The Geneva Diplomatic Book Circle (GDBC) Roundtable: "Ideas Can Be Made: The UN Contribution to the Discourse on Development"
Thomas G. Weiss participated in an interactive roundtable discussion featuring the publications of the United Nations Intellectual History Project. Other speakers included Mr. Yves Berthelot, Senior Research Fellow at The CUNY Graduate Center and Co-director of the UNIHP; Ms. Lakshmi Puri, Director, Division on International Trade in Goods and Services, UNCTAD; Mr. Heiner Flassbeck, Director, Division of Globalization and Development Strategies, UNCTAD; Mr. Khalil Hamdani, Director, Division of Investment, Technology and Related Financial, UNCTAD; Ms. Jo Butler, Chief Intergovernmental Affairs and Outreach Service, UNCTAD. Moderators were Co-Founders of the GDBC Mr. Jovan Kurbilija, and Mr. Amr Aljowaily, Permanent Mission of Egypt to the UN in Geneva. Please click here to download the summary of the discussion (pdf).

Glasgow, Scotland, 26 June 2007
Glasgow University, Conference on Heterodox Thinking
Richard Jolly gave the opening keynote, "Policies and Institutions for Growth and Development: Is there a Heterodox View?" for the Glasgow University Conference on Heterodox Thinking.

New York, New York, 12 June 2007
United Nations Bookshop
Thomas G. Weiss and Sam Daws gave presentations on the Oxford Handbook on the United Nations during its official release at the UN Bookshop. They were joined by Kiyotaka Akasaka, Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information and Barbara Crossette, Oxford Handbook author and UN Bureau Chief of The New York Times from 1994 to 2001. Please click here to see the flyer.

New York, New York, 8 June 2007
20th Anniversary Meeting of the Academic Council on the United Nations
Richard Jolly presented a paper on "The Third United Nations"—that of nongovernmental organizations, academics, consultants, experts, independent commissions, and other groups closely associated with UN activities but not formally part of it.

New York, New York, 6 June 2007
20th Anniversary Meeting of the Academic Council on the United Nations
Thomas G. Weiss and Sam Daws launched the Oxford Handbook on the United Nations. Please click here to see the event featured in the UNA-UK newletter, New World.

Warsaw, Poland, 31 May-4 June 2007
High-level regional meeting
Louis Emmerij presented results to date of the UN Intellectual History project.

Kazakhstan, 11 April 2007
UNICEF
Richard Jolly presented an overview of the findings of the UNIHP at the new UNICEF office in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan. In addition to the UNICEF staff attending, the presentation was videotaped, to be made available for other UN staff in the main offices of Almaty. Dr. Jolly also briefly discussed the project on the previous day, during a keynote presentation to wind up a two day meeting on budgeting for children, held in the Senate chamber of the Government of Kazakhstan, with participants from the Kazakhstan Parliament and from a number of other countries in transition.

Paris, France, 15 March 2007
L’Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne
Thomas G. Weiss made a presentation on UN Voices and Oral history research techniques.

Paris, France, 14 March 2007
Académie de Paris au Grand Amphithéâtre de la Sorbonne
Thomas G. Weiss presented the importance of UN history for teaching of international relations at the first session of the European Branch of the Academic Council on the United Nations System, of which he is currently the chair of the Board of Directors.

Chicago, Illinois, 1 March 2007
Annual Convention of the International Studies Association (ISA)
Thomas G. Weiss discussed UNIHP findings for a plenary roundtable reflecting ISA Chair Prof. Ann Tickner's theme of "Politics, Policy and Responsible Scholarship."

Budapest, Hungary, 22-23 February 2007
Epoch forming changes in the World Economy in the last stage of the 20th century and the main challenges of the new era
Louis Emmerij spoke about The Move toward a Multipolar World: the Role of the UN at a conference on Epoch forming changes in the World Economy in the last stage of the 20th century and the main challenges of the new era, organized by the Institute for World Economics of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and the faculty of World Economy of the Budapest Corvinus University.

New York, New York, 5 February 2007
Human Security: Stock-taking and Moving Ahead
This seminar, jointly organized by the Permanent Mission of Canada to the United Nations and the UN Intellectual History Project, will explore the value-added of the concept of human security and its particular relevance for the United Nations. While the term is often associated with abstract definitional debates, we propose to focus on the international impact that adopting a people-centered approach to security policy has already had as well as practical next steps that could taken to further advance this agenda.
Presentations were made by S. Neil MacFarlane (University of Oxford and co-author with Yuen Foong-Khong of Human Security and the UN: A Critical History); Andrew Mack (Director of the Human Security Centre of the University of British Columbia and principal author of The Human Security Report 2005); Richard Jolly (Honorary Professor University of Sussex and co-director of the UNIHP, who participated in a 2006 UNDP analysis of fourteen country programs that examined the importance of human security and human development); and Don Hubert (Director of the Human Security Policy Division at the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade). Thomas G. Weiss moderated the discussion.

Casablanca, Morocco, 12-15 January 2007
Women Weave Peace into Globalisation
A unity of purpose as well as a call for a fundamental reconceptualisation of society has emerged from varied voices. The objective is not merely to tote up a balance sheet of assets and liabilities; of achievements and failures – but rather to move beyond the existing framework itself. Taking cognizance of these wide spread concerns, a meeting was organized of about 15 experienced women activist intellectuals in Casablanca. The intention was to reflect on the past efforts, to critically evaluate the present and to attempt to construct a framework which would be more in tune with the ground level realities that women, especially less advantaged women are currently facing, as well as aware of the macro situation and impulses and crisis. The goal was to create a knowledge derived document -- a memorandum, an advocacy tool, later perhaps a book, which attempts to build a revised analytical framework for looking at development experience with special reference to women in poverty and their quest for equality and justice.
Devaki Jain made a presentation about Women, Development and the UN. Please click here to download her paper.

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