On 30 October 2015, United Nations staff and delegates and university researchers and students gathered for the second annual J. Michael Adams Lecture and Conversation Series, featuring retired U.S. Ambassador Thomas Pickering and his reflections on the past and future of the United Nations.
Deputy-Secretary-General Jan Eliasson aptly introduced Ambassador Pickering as a living legend of American and international diplomacy. Following three years as an officer in the United States Navy from 1956 till 1959, Thomas Pickering embarked upon a career with the U.S. Foreign Service. Throughout the following fifty years, Ambassador Pickering would hold a myriad of diplomatic appointments, including Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs under the Clinton Administration, and U.S. Ambassador to Jordan, Nigeria, El Salvador, Israel, India, and the Russian Federation. During his tenure as U.S. Permanent Representative to the UN from 1989 to 1992, Ambassador Pickering played a pivotal role in shaping the Security Council's response to Iraq's invasion of Kuwait and the First Gulf War. In the year 2000, Pickering retired with the rank of Career Ambassador, the highest within the U.S. Foreign Service.
In his address to attendees of the J. Michael Adams Series, Ambassador Pickering brought to bear his intimate familiarity with the art of diplomacy within and beyond the UN. Describing the Organization as old home, Ambassador Pickering began his lecture by highlighting three global developments that have forced the UN to radically evolve since its inception in 1945: namely, the globalization of technology, the increasing interconnectivity of the international political economy and the elevated costs of military action associated with weapons of mass destruction.
In light of this increasing interdependence, Ambassador Pickering urged the United Nations and its Member States to respond to global challenges – be they financial crises, rural poverty or regional rivalries – with peaceful collective action, particularly those of an economic nature.
We are challenged… to put the international community further in the center of the kind of cooperation that is required to help stabilize, manage and recover from banking, financial and other shocks, said the Ambassador. And I'm not sure that we have the institutional methods and mechanisms ready to move that.
Perhaps the most piquant portion of the address was Ambassador Pickering's advice on how the international community should respond to a number of salient debates. The seasoned diplomat encouraged the UN to approach the Syrian conflict with multilateral efforts to create a transitional government; to enumerate and demand minimum international standards to be met by any Israeli-Palestinian treaty; and to elect the next Secretary-General of the Organization based on merit, accomplishment and demonstrated attention to the needs of all Member States.
I really believe it's time to elect a woman, added Ambassador Pickering, prompting a round of applause from audience members. I want to see the men out there clapping.
The event concluded with a question-and-answer session in which civil servants, UN staff members, scholars and university students asked the retired Ambassador to share his views on a number of current challenges to the work of the United Nations, including breaking down silos within institutionsand the limitations of the international community to encroach upon sovereign nations at war.
Ambassador Pickering's lecture constituted the second installment of the annual J. Michael Adams Lecture and Conversation Series. The initiative – whose inaugural address was delivered by eminent Saudi Arabian scientist Dr. Hayat Sindi in 2014 – engages renowned scholars in a discussion with the United Nations community on a topic of global significance. The series honors the life and work of the late Dr. J. Michael Adams, who leveraged his position as president of Fairleigh Dickinson University to forge ties between the United Nations and academic institutions. Under his leadership, Fairleigh Dickinson became the first university in the world to earn Special Consultative Status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council, and the first member of United Nations Academic Impact.
To view a video recording of the event, .?
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By?UN Department of Public Information?Special Events Intern, Rocio Labrador.?