New UNU Rector - Professor Konrad Osterwalder has been appointed
the next rector of UNU. Professor Osterwalder assumed the Rectorate of
UNU at a ceremony held at UNU on Friday, August 31.
Press Release
THE MISSION OF UNU is to
contribute, through research and capacity building, to efforts to
resolve the pressing global problems that are the concern of the United
Nations, its Peoples and Member States.
UNU Charter
Background Note : Globalization and Environmental
Challenges pose new security dangers and concerns. In this reference book on
global security thinking, 92 authors from five continents and many disciplines,
from science and practice, access the global reconceptualization of security
triggered by the end of the Cold War, globalization and manifold impacts of
global environmental change in the early 21st century. In 10 parts, 75 chapters
address the theoretical, philosophical, ethical, and religious and spatial
context of security; discuss the relationship between security, peace
development and environment; review the reconceptualization of security in
philosophy, international law, economics and political science and for the
political, military, economic, social and environmental security dimension and
the adaptation of the institutional security concepts of the UN, EU and NATO;
analyze the reconceptualization of regional security and alternative security
features and draw conclusions for future research and action.
The book contains a chapter by the director of UNU-ONY,
Dr. Jean-Marc Coicaud on “ Quest for International Security: Benefits of Justice
versus the Trappings of Paranoia” and three chapters on the conceptual security
debate within the United Nations by: Dr. JoyOgwu, on : “ECOWAS and Regional
Security Challenges “, Jürgen Dedring on : “Human Security and the UN Security
Council”: Sebastian von Einsiedel, Heiko Nitzschke and Tarum Chha+bra:
“Evolution of the United Nations Security Concept: Role of the High-Level Panel
on Threats, Challenges, and Change” and by Case Brown: Emergent Sustainability :
The Concept of Sustainable Development in a Complex World”.
Hans Günter Brauch is an Adj. professor (Privatdozent) at the Faculty of
Political Science and Social Science, Free University of Berlin; since 2005
fellow at the Institute on Environment and Human Security of the United Nations
University (UNU-EHS) in Bonn; since 1987 chairman of Peace Research and European
Security Studies (AFES-PRESS), and since 2003 Lead Editor of the relations at
the universities of Frankfurt on Main, Leipzig and Greifswald and at the
teachers training college in Erfurt. From 1976-1989 he was research associate at
Heidelberg and Stuttgart universities, a research fellow at Harvard and Stanford
University and he was also teaching at the universities of Darmstadt, Tübingen,
Stuttgart and Heidelberg. Mr. Hans Günter Brauch has published widely in English
and German on security, climate, and energy and on Mediterranean issues. His
most recent co-edited English books include: Euro-Mediterranean Partnership for
the 21st Century (Basingstoke-New York: Palgrave 2000); and; Security and
Environment in the Mediterranean. Conceptualizing Security and Environmental
Conflicts (Berlin-London-New York: Springer 2003), and of two studies:
Environmental Dimension of Human Security: Freedom from Hazard Impact (Bonn:
UNU-EHS) and Threats, Challenges, Vulnerabilities and Risks in Environmental and
Human Security, 2005 (Bonn: UNU-EHS).
Juergen Dedring is an adjunct professor on global affairs at CUNY since
1996, in particular at the Graduate Center and at the City College, as well as
at NYU in the School of Continuing and Professional studies. He was born in
Germany in 1939, studied at the University of Freidburg and at the Free
University of Berlin where he obtained the degrees of a ‘Diplom- Polititoloque’
in 1965; and a Ph.D in 1974 in government at Harvard University. He taught at
Harvard University and at Dartmouth College; he was a research associate at
UNITAR, New York, 1972-1974, and from January 1975 to August 1996 he was a
political officer, at the UN Secretariat in New York where he chose early
retirement in September 1996. He conducted research on international
organizations, multilateralism, conflict prevention, conflict resolution and
peacemaking; on European studies, including the European Union.
Among Mr. Jurgen Dedring’s numerous writing is a book on: Recent Advances in
peace and Conflict Research. A Critical survey. A UNITAR Study (Beverly Hills –
London: Sage, 1976) and many Resurgence and Renewal was accepted in May 2007 for
publication by SUNY Press, Albany, New York, and is expected to be published in
spring 2008.
Marc Levy is deputy director of Center for International Earth
Science Information (CIESIN); he continues to serve on an interim basis as
associate director for Science Applications. His training is in political
science, and he has published on environmental sustainability indicators,
environment-security connections, the effectiveness of international
environmental institutions, on social learning and environmental policy-making.
At CIESIN he leads work on water-conflict linkages, anthropogenic drivers of
emerging infectious diseases, climate vulnerability, and other projects seeking
to understand human-environment interactions in a context of global change. He
serves as lead project scientist of the Socioeconomic Data and Applications
Center, and coordinates CIESIN’s work for the Millennium Villages Project.
Mr. Levy served as a convening lead author for the Millennium Ecosystem
Assessment and the UN Environment Program's Global Environmental Outlook 4. He
serves as a member of the Political Instability Task Force, and was a member of
the National Research Council committee on “Land-use Change, Ecosystem Dynamics,
and Biodiversity,” which was part of the Decadal Study “Earth Science and
Applications from Space: A Community Assessment and Strategy for the Future.”
