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International Organization & UN Studies: Looking back at Spring 2021

Daniel Naujoks - Monday, June 7, 2021
 Events   IO/UNS Newsletter 

Dear IO/UNS Community, 

As another semester in the virtual post-pandemic world comes to a close, we end in the hope of maximum vaccine coverage and smooth transtition to what we considered a normal life soon. While the COVID-19 pandemic posed multiple challenges to multilateral cooperation, the United Nations and International Organisations were a critical part, not only with regard to the public health crisis but equally its economic, social, and development knock-on effects.   Efforts to build back (or forward) better by promoting green, equitable, human rights-based and gender-responsive recovery, inclusive societies, resilient social protection systems, and meaningful multilateral partnerships are at the core of the new agenda and at the core of what we strive to understand and promote at SIPA. Our recent graduates will be able to contribute with critical ideas, in-depth analysis and hands-on activism to work on these issues and returning students will soon join them. 

In the quest to resiliently withstand the pandemic, we would be amiss if we didn't applaud you - our IO/UNS Community! Despite the considerable challenges faced by students and faculty alike, we were amazed by your unfazed resilience. You participated in classes throughout time zones, adapted quickly to new forms of learning, worked hard on your semester assignments and exams, searched for internships and jobs, and made sure to attend our events, all while fighting personal and social challenges! 

We saw the tremendous participation in events. More than 1,000 participants joined our career events, lunch talks, high-level panels, and social hours. Our events this semester focused on the World Bank's efforts to build back better post the pandemic and the UN's transition to digital diplomacy and its impact on the processes. The first two speakers in a timely series on Racism and International Organizations shed light on the role of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) and the UN Alliance of Civilizations, with CERD chair Noureddine Amir and UNAOC's UN Under-Secretary-General and High Representative Miguel Ángel Moratinos.

Also our career events saw an extremely high turnout, including the second edition of the United Nations Roundtable Conversations networking event with more than 100 students and 20 experts from the UN and International Organizations, as well as our interactive workshops on using Twitter as a networking tool or preparing for internships. 

Before the below semester review provides highlights from our many activities, I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to our outstanding program assistants Sanya Batra and Vato Gogsadze for their excellent work. They supported all of our events, actively searched opportunities for our specializers, and provided substantive inputs into the strategic positioning and future of SIPA’s program on international organizations - all while adapting to the virtual environment and in spite of the challenges the pandemic has thrown on all of us. I am much indebted to their dedication, critical reflections, and professionalims.

Thanks for your important contributions to the work of the specialization, your active participation in our events and for being part of our community. 

Daniel Naujoks
Interim Director
International Organization & UN Studies

To reward attentive readers of this semester review: Somewhere hidden in this overview are three blue caps ­ƒºó­ƒºó­ƒºó. The first 5 students who find them and send an email with the three words preceding the icons to iouns@columbia.edu get a stylish IO/UNS coffee mug or tumbler! 

Continuing from the engaging Fall 2020 semester, Spring 2021 saw a broad range of events during which we engaged more than 1,000 students, faculty, and guests.

Building Back Better: Opportunities for the World Bank and International Cooperation

The effect of the COVID-19 pandemic was seen as the reversal of decades of progress on poverty, healthcare and education, especially for the most vulnerable population. The event focused on key questions pertaining to these global setbacks to understand – How to build back better and use the rupture of the pandemic to create more equitable, effective, and environmentally-sound systems and thus "recover forward"? Dr. Jürgen Zattler, Director-General for International Development Policy, 2030 Agenda, and Climate at the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, and until recently Germany's Excutive Director at the World Bank, engaged in an enlightening discussion on the opportunities for the World Bank and other multilateral organizations to recover in an inclusive manner. Zattler spoke about inclusion and its varied aspects and engaged with members of our IO/UNS Community on the different paths to recovery. ­ƒÄª Watch the recording here.

This year, we mark the 20th anniversary of the Durban World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance. In 2020, events in the US have sparked again a global discussion on the need to address all forms of racism the world over. Examining the norm-setting, legal, policy, and narrative-changing activities of various international organizations, the speaker series shows both successes and limitations of multilateral approaches toward combating racial discrimination and promoting social cohesion.

On April 2nd, 2021, Noureddine Amir, Chair of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) shared insights from over 20 years of processes, politics, impacts and partnerships of the CERD and its role to monitor the implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. ­ƒÄª Watch the recording here.

On April 14th, 2021, Miguel Ángel Moratinos, UN Under-Secretary-General and High Representative for the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC) shared insights into how the Alliance serves as a platform for intercultural and interreligious dialogue, and works to prevent and address identity-based tensions and crises and combat stereotypes, misperceptions, discrimination and xenophobia. ­ƒÄª Watch the recording here.

Distance Diplomacy: How the Pandemic Affects Formal and Informal Processes at the UN

The COVID-19 pandemic changed the lives of millions of people in the world, forcing businesses, governments, and international organizations to shift to remote platforms. A high-level panel shed light on how the United Nations continued its work in the new reality and how it changed the way diplomats negotiate. The panel featured SIPA Dean Merit E. Janow, Lebanon’s permanent representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Amal Mudallali, award-winning reporter (and Columbia Journalism alumna) Stéphanie Fillion and IO/UNS director a.i., Professor Daniel Naujoks.

Ambassador Mudallali highlighted the effects of the pandemic on negotiations, dubbing virtual negotiations as a "nightmare". As she described, some of the challenges include not having physical access to the chair and to other diplomats, having to rely in some cases on connecting via text messages—which can easily be ignored—and not being able to read expressions, energy, and body language that are lost on the screen.

Building relationships, trust, and cooperation with new ambassadors who have joined the UN in the last year proved to be even more challenging.  And the lack of chance encounters, running into one another in corridors, at the delegates’ lounge, and elsewhere has significantly affected the relations between country representatives.

Fillion highlighted challenges faced by journalists reporting UN news to the world, as they sometimes inadvertently are left out from important conversations as the UN adapts to the new working environment.

The interest among SIPA students in careers at international organizations remains extremely high. Guided by the high demand from students, we were able to offer career-related development through the working group on remote internships, a internship workshop, our United Nations Roundtable Conversations and Networking event and a virtual workshop on using Twitter as a networking tool. In addition, our newsletters flagged 200+ IO-related internship opportunities.

SIPA’s United Nations Roundtable Conversations and Networking event on March 26 gave 120 students the chance to connect meaningfully with 20 UN experts from around the word.

Recalling the success of last year’s in-person event, this year’s virtual format allowed SIPA students to connect not only with officials in New York but also with experts based in Geneva, Washington, and in-country offices in Tanzania, Costa Rica, Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, Germany, Kenya, France, Panama, India, and Moldova.

The event featured virtual breakout rooms that brought together six students with each participating expert. Discussions centered on the experts’ work and experiences to foster development, cooperation, peace, human rights, climate change, and prosperity. Each student took part in three different roundtable conversations, enjoying the opportunity to interact with staff members from a broad range of international organizations, including UNDP, World Bank, OECD, UN Women, UNFPA, ILO, UNEP, UNFCCC, UNICEF, UNHCR, IOM, UN DESA, UNCDF, OHCHR, UN-ESCWA, and the UN Global Compact. ­ƒôû Read the event write-up here.

IO/UN Internship Preparation 

As many of you are preparing for summer internships at international organizations, on May 12, a virtual happy hour with IO/UNS director a.i., Professor Daniel Naujoks offered pointers on what to focus on. You can still  ­ƒÄª watch the recording of the event to strategically think about what skills should you aim at building, how to use internships as a platform for robust networking; how you can influence the assignments you get and what you need to consider for virtual internships. 

Virtual Workshop on Using Twitter as a Networking Tool for International Affairs 

The 'Twittersphere' is an important platform for those working on international development, multilateralism and international affairs more broadly. Social media platforms are not only a vital source of current information or venues for discussions and exchanges, but they can also be important tools for networking and professional opportunities. This workshop highlighted the potential of forging and deepening professional networks through the use of Twitter by enabling attendees to use Twitter in a personal, though professional capacity.

Carl Mercer, Communications and Campaign Adviser to the President of the UN General Assembly, Alexis Wichowski, Deputy Chief Technology Officer for Innovation for the City of New York and Adjunct Associate Professor at SIPA, and Daniel Naujoks, Director a.i. for the International Organization & UN Studies Specialization at SIPA provided hands-on examples and practical advice about how to engage experts at the UN, development agencies, think-tanks and other institutions meaningfully,

The virtual workshop helped students and speakers engage in useful discussions on the importance of representative Twitter bios, the use of appropriate Emojis, their persona on their profiles and the benefits of networking through such an open and approachable platform. Students interacted with the experts and among each other on @UNatColumbia's Twitter thread chatting about what they like about Tweets, which gave them wonderful insights into different perspectives. On this thread, we asked participants to comment and engage with us and promised to follow their accounts! Let's strive to continue engaging through Tweets and Retweets in the future! Don't forget to tag us @UNatColumbia.

­ƒÄª Watch the event recording here.

Co-sponsored events

In addition, we were proud to co-sponsor the GPPs event COVID: Notes from the First Year with a Gender Lens and MPA-DP's seminar on Indigenous and innovative approaches in Social Work, as well as the Institute for the Study of Human Rights' book talk Reporting the Siege of Sarajevo and the Committe on Forced Migration's webinar on Pandemic and Geopolitics: Politics of Nationalism and Borders, Open and Closed.

Our social events focused on building the IO/UNS community and welcoming new members to our IO/UNS family. Although we were not able to meet in person, all of our events tried to foster a sense of community to a certain degree and we hope that all participants, especially students, found all of our events welcoming and engaging ­ƒºó­ƒºó­ƒºó.

IO/UNS Graduation Celebration and Happy Hour Mixer

A higlight of this semester was when we came together as a community virtually and in-person to celebrate our graduating class of 2021 IO/UNS Specializers. On April 27 2021, we first met online on the interactive platform Wonder and then celebrated in person to reflect on the journey of those graduating, learning during the pandemic year, and on the way forward. We relished in the rare joys of physical company, drinks and food, while also making sure we keep everyone safe and healthy. Some already inaugurated their new IO/UNS mugs and tumblers to cheer to our amazing community. And again: Congratulations SIPA class of 2021 - you will be essential to rebuild post-pandemic economies, health systems, development cooperation, climate action, peace, human rights and mulitlateral regimes!

IO/UN Studies Virtual Happy Hour 

We tried our bit to help the IO/UNS Specializers get a breather from the chaos of the course shopping period by inviting them to an evening of catching up, getting to know new students, and providing support. We tried to help students brush-up on their 'Taboo' skills by playing it with UN words and in the process, share some quick UN-related facts! 
 

Media & Outreach

Since we started the specialization’s Twitter account @UNatColumbia in September 2019, we have not only witnessed an impressive growth of our followers, but importantly, meaningful engagements with students, faculty, UN staff members, and the general audience. Through the interactions with more than 2,300 followers we hope to stimulate discussions on the role of multilateralism to address the critical challenges of our times and to highlight the work done at Columbia on these issues to international organizations and other interested audiences. If you don’t follow us, please do at: @UNatColumbia.

We hope you enjoyed reading our weekly newsletters as much as we did writing them. Every Tuesday of the semester, we curated thought-provoking events at SIPA, the UN and beyond, shared mutiple internship opportunities at international organizations, and highlighted new publications, reports, and podcasts. And we hope you like the newly designed format and design of the newsletter, which we hope makes reading the content even more appealing. We equally enjoyed the student spotlights, during which we had a chance to shine a light on some of our amazing students (please self-nominate for spotlights in the Fall here).

The success of our programs was in great part due to the collaborations and partnerships across SIPA and Columbia. We are grateful for the active cooperation with our partner programs in Economic and Political Development; Human Rights and Humanitarian Policy; Gender and Public Policy; Technology, Media and Communication; International Conflict Resolution; Management; the MPA Program in Development Practice; the Office of Career Services and the UN Association student organization, as well as the Committee on Global Thought; the Center for Global Governance; the Columbia Global Centers; and the MA on Climate+Society. 

IO/UNS will continue to engage with students and organize interesting and engaging events. We are excited to return on campus and resume in-person classes and events to further build a tighter community here at SIPA and beyond. Looking ahead, here is a teaser for some of the events we are planning in the fall:
  • A talk by former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on his new book 'Resolved - Uniting Nations in a Divided World' (2021, Columbia University Press).
  • Two events in our speaker series on Racism & International Organizations, including on racism within the UN.
  • A book panel: Rethinking Peace Mediation Challenges of Contemporary Peacemaking Practice.

Also watch out for events and social programs this summer. 

In addition to several interesting events, we are excited to launch a new IO/UNS blog in Fall 2021. The blog will serve as a platform for student and faculty news and external contributions, featuring faculty publications, stories from internships and capstone projects, write-up of meetings at the UN or events at Columbia. We hope that this will further strengthen SIPA’s unique position in the debates on multilateralism. 

As I am sad to see Sanya Batra and Vato Gogsadze leave as program assistants, I am excited to announce that Nathan Edwards and Yun Liang will be joining us as PAs. I have no doubt that both will be a great resource and support for the specialization.

I hope all of you get a well-deserved break over the summer, congratulations to the class of 2021, and we look forward to engaging with you all in the Fall term!

Follow the IO/UNS Specialization on
CampusGroups, Facebook, Twitter, and WhatsApp.

Feel free to reach out to us:
Daniel Naujoks, Interim Director, daniel.naujoks@columbia.edu