Giving Voice to the UN Experience

Background information

Scholars of the United Nations have often focused on the power politicsbetween its member states, or on the mechanics of its bureaucracy. Rarely has anyone seen the UN secretariat as a collection of unique individuals, many of whom have made significant intellectual contributions in their own right. A new book in the UN Intellectual History Series, entitled "UN Voices: The Struggle for Development and Social Justice", attempts to change all that --

with a collection of essays based on interviews with some of the individuals who have devoted their lives to the pursuit of international cooperation. Thomas Weiss and Tatiana Carayannis of the City University of New York, two of the book's co-authors, discuss their research in this special UN 60th anniversary edition of World Chronicle.

Tatiana Carayannis is associate director of the Social Science Research Council's Conflict Prevention and Peace Forum, having recently moved from The City University of New York's Ralph Bunche Institute for International Studies, where she directed the research of the United Nations Intellectual History Project. Until 2000 she was an adjunct instructor in international relations at CUNY and before that a researcher at the Carnegie Corporation of NY. In 1998, she served as rapporteur for the UN Secretary-General's Resource Group on the DRC, and between 1989 and 1995 as program officer at the Institute for International Education, where she worked on democratic transitions and security sector reform in West and southern Africa. She is co-author of UN Voices: The Struggle for Development and Social Justice (Indiana University Press, 2005).

Her second book, on the first UN peacekeeping mission in the Congo, is under contract for 2007. Her research interests include wars and peacebuilding efforts in Central Africa, global-local conflict linkages, irregular armed groups, and the agenda-setting role of UN ideas. Her work has appeared in a number of books and academic journals, including the Journal of International Affairs, Journal of Asian and African Studies, Journal of Global Social Policy, and Forum for Development Studies. She has also consulted for a variety of multilateral and

non-governmental actors, including UN DPKO, UNICEF, the Ford Foundation, and the International Peace Academy. Tatiana has been a Jennings Randolph Peace Scholar and is currently completing a Ph.D. dissertation on conflict networks and hybrid wars in Central Africa. She holds an M.Phil. from The CUNY Graduate Center, an M.A. from New York University, and a B.A. from Adelphi University. She received a Cértificat Pratique de français commercial et économique from the Chambre de Commerce et d'Industrie de Paris and training in elite interview methods from Columbia University.

Thomas G. Weiss is Presidential Professor of Political Science at The CUNY Graduate Center and Director of the Ralph Bunche Institute for International Studies, where he is co-director of the UN Intellectual History Project. He is President (2009-10) of the International Studies Association, chair (2006-9) of the Academic Council on the UN System (ACUNS). His latest book is What's Wrong with the United Nations and How to Fix It (2009).

As Research Professor at Brown University’s Watson Institute for International Studies (1990-98), he also held university administrative posts (Associate Dean of the Faculty, Director of the Global Security Program, Associate Director), was the Executive Director of ACUNS, and co-directed the Humanitarianism and War Project. Earlier, he was the Executive Director of the International Peace Academy (1985-9); a Senior Economic Affairs Officer at the UN Conference on Trade and Development in Geneva (1975-85);

and held professional posts in the Office of the UN Commissioner for Namibia, the University Program at the Institute for World Order, the United Nations Institute for Training and Research, and International Labor Organization. He has been a consultant for foundations and numerous inter-governmental and non-governmental organizations and was editor of Global Governance (2000-5) and research director of the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty (2000-2).

Words and Expressions

bureaucracynonelective government officials

eg. 1. The bureaucracy has become ossified.

2. The dead hand of bureaucracy is slowing our progress .

archivalof or relating to or contained in or serving as an

archive

anonymitythe state of being anonymous

eg. The author prefers anonumity.

machinerya system of means and activities whereby a socia

l institution functions

eg. 1. We can't afford to have all this expensive machinery lying idle.

2. The bar fell into the machinery and sheared a connecting-rod.

scourgessomething causes misery or death

eg. After the scourge of war came the scourge of disease.

adolescencethe time period between the beginning of pubert

y and adulthood

eg. The period of adolescence is very important in forming one's character.

recipedirections for making something

eg. 1. This recipe will be enough for four servings.

2. A recipe tells you that you need so many eggs, so much milk, etc.

coupona negotiable certificate that can be detached and

redeemed as needed

eg. 1. I have a coupon for ten pence off a packet of soap.

2. This coupon can be redeemed at any of our branches.

mosaicdecorated with small pieces of colored glass or st

one fitted together

eg. It's a rich mosaic of meadows, rivers and woods.

commentarya written explanation or criticism or illustration t

hat is added to a book or other textual material

eg. 1. The tour guide gave a running commentary from the front of the coach.

2. We'd better not make any commentary on others.

versimplificationan act of excessive simplification; the act of mak

ing something seem simpler than it really is

eg. It would be an oversimplification to consider poverty as something which is the same in every part of the world.

traumaany physical damage to the body caused by viole

nce or accident or fracture etc.

eg. Psychic trauma; psychic energy.

underbellylower side; the quality of being weak or unprotec

ted- Winston Churchill

eg. Beginning in the1990’s the notion of human development and then human securities are the soft underbelly of international peace and security being poverty.

erodebecome ground down or deteriorate

eg. The sea has eroded the cliff face over the years.

technocracya form of government in which scientists and tec

hnical experts are in control

eg. Is Britain becoming a technocracy?