Can the UN still resolve major wars?

September 19, 2024 | New York City

While the United Nations played a critical role in resolving or freezing some major wars in the past, it seems unable to do the same today. As the world is once again engulfed in violent conflict, the UN Security Council remains gridlocked amid intensifying great power rivalries.

The Ralph Bunche Institute for International Studies at The City University of New York (CUNY) and FES New York convened an expert seminar to explore the potential of various UN interventions in resolving major wars based on historical precedents, especially regarding the Russia-Ukraine and Hamas-Israel wars, as well as the role the International Criminal Court (ICC) and International Court of Justice (ICJ) might play in these conflicts.

Welcome:

• Prof. John Torpey, Director, Ralph Bunche Institute for International Studies, CUNY Graduate Center
• Dr. Michael Bröning, Executive Director, Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung New York

Keynote Remarks:

• H.E. Maria Fernanda Espinosa, President of the 73rd Session of the UN General Assembly, and former Minister of Foreign Affairs and Defense of Ecuador

Session 1: Could a UN transitional administration or other UN tools be used in resolving or freezing the Russia-Ukraine and Hamas-Israeli wars?

• Prof John Torpey, Director, Ralph Bunche Institute for International Studies
• Prof A. Dirk Moses, CCNY Anne & Bernard Spitzer Chair in International Relations
• Dr. Jessie Barton Hronesova, Lecturer in Political Sociology, School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College London
• Dr. Walter Dorn, Professor of Defense Studies at the Royal Military College of Canada and the Canadian Forces College

Session 2: If the Security Council is in stalemate, can the General Assembly or the Secretary-General resolve or freeze major wars?

• Dr. Bertrand Ramcharan, former Acting High Commissioner of Human Rights and Under-Secretary-General, former Director in the Department of Political Affairs and former Director of the International Conference on the Former Yugoslavia
• Prof. Jean Krasno, Director, Multilateralism and International Organization Initiative, CCNY Colin Powell Center for Policy Studies
• Dr. Tapio Kanninen, Senior Fellow and Major Wars Project Leader at CUNY Ralph Bunche Institute, former Chief of Policy Planning, UN Department of Political Affairs
• Dr. John Cockell, Deputy Director, Conflict Prevention, Stabilization and Peacebuilding Division, Global Affairs Canada, former Senior Officer at the UN

Lunch Session: The Role of the ICJ and the ICC in Judicial Determination of International crimes and Issuance of International Arrest Warrants

• Dr. Erica Gaston, Head of Conflict Prevention and Sustaining Peace Programme, Centre for Policy Research, UN University
• Dr. Roy S. Lee, Permanent Observer to the UN for the Asian-African Consultative Legal Organization, formerly Professor of Law, Columbia University Law School, and former Executive Secretary of the UN Conference to Establish the ICC
• Dr. Bertrand Ramcharan, former Acting High Commissioner of Human Rights and Under-Secretary-General