The John Sloan Dickey Center for International Understanding will hold a conference commemorating the 50th anniversary of the founding of the United Nations this April 9th and 10th.
Dickey Center Senior Fellow and Government Professor emeritus Gene Lyons said the purpose of the conference is "to get people thinking about the United Nations and, more importantly, to understand what has happened globally over the past 50 years."
Speakers for the conference, titled "The United Nations: 50 Years After San Francisco," include many Dartmouth alumni.
Lyons, who is a specialist on the U.N. and the chief organizer of the conference, said several of the speakers knew and were inspired by former College President John Sloan Dickey, Lyons said.
According to a press release, Dickey was heavily involved in the creation of the U.N. as a U.S. State Department Officer. He became College president the year the United Nations was founded.
Lyons said he thinks it is important for students to know that former Dartmouth students are involved with the U.N. today.
The conference begins April 9 with a film titled "1945: The Founding of the United Nations." After the film, there will be a panel discussion on "The United Nations Today" featuring Alvaro de Soto, U.N. assistant secretary general for political affairs.
April 10 will feature three panel discussions. The first panel, moderated by Government Professor Mlada Bukovansky, will discuss "Peacekeeping Plus: The United Nations and International Security."
The panel will include former U.N. Under Secretary General Ronald Spiers '48 and Robert Grey, Jr. '57, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Government Professor Oran Young will chair the second panel titled "Order or Chaos?: The United Nations and the Management of Global Problems." Young said this topic is very relevant now because the global agenda has experienced fundamental changes since the founding of the U.N. in 1945.
He said one of the purposes of the panel is to enable students "to gain an understanding of the whole new agenda of complex international issues which are relatively poorly understood but are likely to become important."
Panelists include Thailand's Ambassador to the United Nations Nitya Pibulsonggram '62, Hilary French '86 of the Worldwatch Institute and Nessim Shallon of the U.N. Development Program.
The final event of the conference will be a panel chaired by Government Professor Michael Mastanduno titled "The Future of the United Nations: Three Views."
The panel will be comprised of Argentinean Ambassador to the U.N. Emilio Cardenas, Egyptian Ambassador to the U.N. Nabil Elaraby and New Zealand's Ambassador to the U.N. Colin Keating.
