Office at the United Nations, New York

The UNU will be featuring Joseph Schwartzberg, a seasoned academic in these discussions, who will offer a provocative response in his book "Revitalizing the United Nations: Reform Through Weighted Voting". He will be at the UN Headquarters on Monday October 26th to discuss his perspective on Security Council Reform in a session moderated by UNU's Dr. Jean-Marc Coicaud.

Date: Monday, October 26, 2009
Time: 1:15pm to 2:30pm EDT, GMT -5
Venue: Conference Room 7, UN Headquarters, NY, New York

Background Readings:
Revitalizing the UN: Reform Through Weighted Voting REVIEW - PDF

Regional Representation as a Basis for Security Council Reform (Schwartzberrg) - PDF

The Illusion of UN Security Council Reform (Weiss, Thomas G.) - PDF

Biography

Speaker Profile
Joseph Schwartzberg was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1928, he received his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin in 1960. He has since taught at the University of Pennsylvania (1960-64 and summer, 1965), the University of Minnesota (1964-2000) and Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi (1979-80). His academic specialties are the geography of South Asia, political geography, and the history of cartography. He is best known as the editor and principal author of the monumental and highly innovative Historical Atlas of South Asia (University of Chicago Press, 1978 and Oxford University Press, 1992). He has authored and co-authored numerous other books and publications. Schwartzberg has done pioneering research on the geography of the Indian caste system during two years of field. He has served on the Editorial Advisory Board of the Encyclopaedia Britannica and as a consultant on South Asia to numerous publishers, Granada TV (UK) and several government agencies in the United States and India.

After 32 months of military service during the Korean War (final rank of 1st lieutenant) Schwartzberg spent an equal time backpacking throughout Europe, and much of North Africa and Asia. He has since extended his travels considerably, having now visited more than a hundred countries in all. He has lived in India (five years), Germany, France, and Spain; and is multi-lingual.

A life-long peace activist, Schwartzberg has a particular interest in the United Nations system and has published extensively on UN reform in Global Governance and other journals. His 2004 monograph, Revitalizing the United Nations: Reform through Weighted Voting, has been circulated worldwide, especially in the diplomatic community. He was a co-founder in 1996 of the Minnesota Alliance of Peacemakers, a consortium now including 73 peace and justice organizations. He served on the Board of Directors of the World Federalist Association, now Citizens for Global Solutions (CGS), chaired its Policy and Issues Commission and, for eleven years, was President of its Minnesota Chapter. He is currently a member of the international Council of the World Federalist Movement as well as the Steering Committee of the World Federalist Institute, a think-tank attached to CGS.

Moderator Profile

Dr. Jean-Marc Coicaud is the Director of the United Nations University (UNU) Office at the United Nations in New York. He was Senior Academic Officer at the UNU in Tokyo from 1996 to 2003. Before joining UNU, he served in the Executive Office of the United Nations Secretary-General as a speechwriter for Dr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali (1992-1996). A former fellow at Harvard University (Center for International Affairs, Department of Philosophy and Harvard Law School, from 1986 to 1992), Coicaud has held appointments such as Cultural Attaché with the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Legislative Aide with the European Parliament (Financial Committee), Associate Professor at the University of Paris, Visiting Professor at the Ecole Normale Supérieure-Ulm in Paris and Visiting Professor at Tsinghua University School of Public Policy and Management. He has also taught at the New School for Social Research (New York). He has been a Senior Fellow at the United States Institute of Peace (Washington, D.C.) and a Global Research Fellow at New York University School of Law. Coicaud holds a Ph.D. in political science-law from the Sorbonne and a Doctorat d'Etat in philosophy from the Institut d'Etudes Politiques of Paris. In addition, he holds undergraduate and graduate degrees in literature and linguistics. Jean-Marc Coicaud is a member of the Advisory Board of Carnegie Council's Global Policy Innovations (New York). He also serves as an adviser for the Fondation pour l'Innovation Politique (Paris).

Jean-Marc Coicaud has published 14 books in the fields of comparative politics, political and legal theory, international relations and international law. They are available in English, French, Japanese, Chinese, Spanish and Arabic, and include the following single-authored books: Politics and Legitimacy: A Contribution to the Study of Political Right and Political Responsibility (Cambridge University Press, 2002), Beyond the National Interest (United States Institute of Peace Press, 2007), Kokuren no Genkai/Kokuren no Mirai (Future of the UN/Limits of the UN - Fujiwara Shoten, 2007), Mai Xiang Guo Ji Fa Zhi (Towards the International Rule of Law - Sanlian Shudian, 2008). His latest book, co-edited with Hilary Charlesworth, is Fault Lines of International Legitimacy (Cambridge University Press, 2009).