The Next Page

23: ICRC President Peter Maurer on multilateralism, the power of partnership, and working for impact

Welcome to Episode 23 of The Next Page podcast. In this episode, UN Library & Archives Geneva Director Francesco Pisano speaks with Peter Maurer, the President of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
This conversation will take you on a deeper look into the ICRC, established more than a century ago. Peter Maurer shares about its identities that have developed over time, and gives insights into its connection with the United Nations; the role of young people in the work of the organisation; the value of new ways of thinking and mobilising resources to ensure work that has impact; and what multilateralism means for the ICRC in practice today and in the future. As this episode is recorded online, as we together respond to the pandemic of COVID-19, he also shares what the ICRC is doing and learning from this current situation. 
ICRC Resources
To learn more about Peter Maurer and the work of the ICRC, head to: https://www.icrc.org/en/person/peter-maurer and https://www.icrc.org/en/who-we-are.  
You can also keep up-to-date via Twitter: https://twitter.com/PMaurerICRC and https://twitter.com/ICRC.  
In addition, learn more about the Geneva Conventions: https://www.icrc.org/en/war-and-law/treaties-customary-law/geneva-conventions, and the book A Memory of Solferino by Henri Dunant: https://www.icrc.org/en/publication/0361-memory-solferino. 
Library Resources
To explore the Library's online collection on International Humanitarian Law (IHL), visit here: https://tinyurl.com/oaihl20  or take a  look at the Library's selection of resources on IHL from our collections (print and online) for the last 10 years: https://tinyurl.com/ihl201020
Content:
Speakers: Peter Maurer & Francesco Pisano.
Host: Natalie Alexander.
Editor & Sound Editor: Natalie Alexander.
Image: International Committee of the Red Cross.
Recorded & produced at the UN Geneva Library & Archives.

22: Prof. Glenda Sluga on multilateralism, internationalism, and our capacity to imagine a better world.

Welcome to Episode 22, featuring Glenda Sluga, Professor of International History at the University of Sydney. She's the author of the book Internationalism in the Age of Nationalism, among other publications, and her research interests span from nationalism and internationalisms, to global and international history, diplomatic history, women and gender, peacemaking, and more.  
She visited the Library recently for a debate on the Evolution of Multilateralism, Perspectives from the Global South. We have a video recording of that Library Talk if you’d like to check it out. We also invited her for a conversation on the podcast, where she shares her thoughts on the meanings of multilateralism and internationalism. What are the differences and connections between the two, and why is this important? We also look at her views on how multilateralism has evolved over the past century, how it’s impacted such areas as gender equality, and also how multilateralism is linked to our everyday lives and our understanding of our place in the world.  
To explore more resources, head to the links below: 
UN Geneva Library & Archives Library Talk on the Evolution of Multilateralism: Perspectives from the Global South: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itLGwAtmyZk&list=PLmzrhlc0gF6KfnUyPYsCw5RfJj_UuXydp&index=6  
Follow Glenda Sluga on Twitter through the Laureate Research Program on International History account: https://twitter.com/IntHist 
Learn about the Edith Trilogy of novels by Frank Moorehouse, a fictional series set at the time of the League of Nations: https://www.booktopia.com.au/blog/2011/10/05/frank-moorhouse-author-of-the-edith-trilogy-grand-days-dark-palace-and-now-cold-light-answers-ten-terrifying-questions/  
Visit our website on the Centenary of Multilateralism in Geneva: https://multilateralism100.unog.ch/
Content:
Speaker: Glenda Sluga
Host: Natalie Alexander.
Editor and Sound Editor: Natalie Alexander.
Image: University of Sydney. 
Recorded & produced at the UN Geneva Library & Archives.
 

21: Diplomat Jivan Gjorgjinski on the role of small states, creativity and a 'climate of legality' in multilateralism.

In Episode 21, our podcast guest brings you ideas from the perspective of a diplomat. The UN Geneva Library & Archives Director, Francesco Pisano, sits down with Jivan Gjorgjinski, a diplomat who served for 3 years in Geneva as Head (chargé d'affaires) of the Permanent Mission of the Republic of North Macedonia to the UN in Geneva from June 2016 to July 2019.   
In this discussion, he shares what it was like working in multilateral diplomacy in Geneva, and what this means in action, giving particular highlights from two key experiences: chairing the 2018 Meeting of States Parties to the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC), and the 2019 CCW GG on LAWS, or the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons Group of Governmental Experts on lethal autonomous weapons systems.  
He explains more about these legal instruments and why they are key examples of multilateralism in action. He also looks at some critical questions: the role of small-state diplomats in the UN, the role of and opportunity for small states in multilateralism, and how diversity, creativity, and finding common ground come into play in multilateralism. 
You’ll even hear a bit about why we should be more like a sci-fi series you might know well!  
To follow Jivan Gjorgjinski on Twitter, head here: https://twitter.com/jivan_gj 
You can also find out more about the Biological Weapons Convention: https://bit.ly/2VPkiRf and the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons: https://bit.ly/2VPkiRf at the UN Geneva website. 
We also have Library Research Guides on Biological Weapons & Chemical Weapons, check them out here as part of the Disarmament series: https://libraryresources.unog.ch/?b=s. 
Content:
Speakers: Jivan Gjorgjinski & Francesco Pisano.
Host: Natalie Alexander.
Editor and Sound Editor: Natalie Alexander.
Image: Jivan Gjorgjinski.
Recorded & produced at the UN Geneva Library & Archives.

20: Catherine Bertini on Leading Transformational Change in International Organizations

What is transformational change, and when might it be needed in an organisation? This episode brings to you a conversation on leadership and change, particularly on the role of transformational change in international organisations. Our guest is Catherine Bertini, who served as the Executive Director of the World Food Programme (WFP) for 10 years from 1992 to 2002, among other roles in government, the private sector and academia. She was, at the time of her appointment, the third woman to have led a UN agency. Shortly after leaving WFP, she was awarded the World Food Prize in 2003 for the change she led in the organization.  
Today, she is a Rockefeller Foundation Fellow, and in this role published a recent report called Leading Change in UN Organizations. She sits down with our Director Francesco Pisano, to speak about the key issues in the report, transformational change and the current state of affairs in global governance, as well as what she’s learned about women in leadership, and the role of youth in leading change at the international level.   
For more information about Catherine Bertini’s work, head to her website: www.catherinebertini.com/. Her report, Leading Change in UN Organizations, is available here: https://bit.ly/2T10ffW.  
Catherine Bertini also led a leadership discussion at the Knowledge & Learning Commons at UN Geneva. Find out more and links to other UN resources on leadership and change here: https://bit.ly/2PeAlUR.   
For even more learning, you can find Library’s Research Guides on Women & Global Diplomacy: https://libraryresources.unog.ch/womendiplomacy and Multilateralism: https://libraryresources.unog.ch/multilateralism online.  
Content:
Speakers: Catherine Bertini & Francesco Pisano.
Host: Natalie Alexander.
Editor and Sound Editor: Natalie Alexander.
Image: UN Library and Archives Geneva.
Recorded & produced at the UN Library and Archives Geneva.

19: Alan Doss on A Peacekeeper in Africa: Learning from UN Interventions in Other People's Wars #BookTalk

In this episode of The Next Page, the podcast of the UN Library & Archives Geneva, we welcome Alan Doss, author of the newly published book, A Peacekeeper in Africa: Learning from UN Interventions in Other People’s Wars (a project of the International Peace Institute and published by Lynne Rienner Press).  
Alan Doss served as special representative of the UN Secretary General in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Liberia, and head of the UN peacekeeping mission in the DRC, among other posts. He now serves as president of the Kofi Annan Foundation in Geneva.  
In this Book Talk episode, Alan Doss sits down with the Director of the UN Library Geneva, Francesco Pisano, to share about his book, which looks at his decade in four peacekeeping operations in Africa. He also shares his insights from many years serving with the UN in peace operations, from the role of peacekeeping and how it has changed over the decades, what he’s learned about leadership in complex environments, and what he sees for the future of UN peace operations. He also shares some personal reflections on former UN Secretary-General the late Kofi Annan, and the legacies he left not only as a leader but as a person.  
For more information about Alan Doss and his work, visit here: https://www.kofiannanfoundation.org/member/alan-doss/  or find him on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AlanCDoss 
To learn more about his book A Peacekeeper in Africa, head to Lynne Rienner Publishers: https://www.rienner.com/title/A_Peacekeeper_in_Africa_Learning_from_UN_Interventions_in_Other_People_s_Wars 
Content:
Speakers: Alan Doss & Francesco Pisano.
Host: Natalie Alexander.
Editor and Sound Editor: Natalie Alexander.
Image: Kofi Annan Foundation.
Recorded & produced at the UN Library Geneva.

18: Amandeep Gill on Nuclear Security Summits: A History #BookTalk

Welcome to the second episode of 2020! In this recording for our Book Talk series, the Director at the Library, Francesco Pisano, speaks with Ambassador Amandeep Gill about his book published in 2019, called Nuclear Security Summits: A History. This book looks at how nuclear security has developed over the period from 1945 to 2006, as well as how it has evolved in practice in more recent years through the Nuclear Security Summits between 2010 and 2016.  
Ambassador Gill has a range of experience in this field and in others, having taken part in 3 of the summits. For this conversation he shares what his book is about and why he thinks the Nuclear Security Summits changed the domain of nuclear security, through driving what he calls nuclear learnings and knowledge-making. He touches upon ideas around collective intelligence, and the role of leadership but also knowledge communities springing up around the topic, and how such negotiations can also be translated to other multilateral domains such as climate change or artificial intelligence negotiations. 
Ambassador Amandeep Gill is currently Director of the Global Health Centre project on International Digital Health & AI Research Collaborative (I-DAIR). He was Executive Director and co-Lead of the Secretariat of the UN Secretary-General’s High-Level Panel on Digital Cooperation until August 2019. He previously served as India’s Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva. You can find out more about his experience here: https://graduateinstitute.ch/academic-departments/faculty/amandeep-singh-gill 
You can find Amandeep Gill on Twitter @gioasempre: https://twitter.com/gioasempre, and his book at Palgrave Macmillan: https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9783030280376.  
The UN Library Geneva also has 8 research guides on disarmament topics, including one on Nuclear Weapons. You can find out more about them here: https://libraryresources.unog.ch/?b=s.   
Content:
Speakers: Amandeep Gill & Francesco Pisano.
Host: Natalie Alexander.
Editor & Sound Editors: Natalie Alexander.
Image: Graduate Institute Geneva.
Recorded & produced at the UN Library Geneva.

17: Jayathma Wickramanayake on leadership, youth & multilateralism

In this episode of our Conversations series, Jayathma Wickramanayake, the United Nations Secretary-General's Envoy on Youth, shares her insights on leadership and youth--particularly young women leaders--with the Director of the UN Library Geneva, Francesco Pisano. It's a fascinating look in to her own experiences, as well as her aspirations and role models, as a leader engaged in advancing multilateralism with youth across the world. 
Jayathma Wickramanayake is Sri Lankan and was appointed as the UN Secretary-General's Envoy on Youth in 2017, the second person to be appointed into this position. Before joining the UN, she played an active role in youth politics, development and  engagement in Sri Lanka. 
Follow Jayathma Wickramanayake on Twitter: https://twitter.com/UNYouthEnvoy, and  learn more about Youth2030: The United Nations Strategy on Youth here: https://www.un.org/youthenvoy/youth-un/. 
You can also find the Library's research guides on Women & Gender Equality, Women and Global Diplomacy and Multilateralism at our website: https://libraryresources.unog.ch/?b=s.
Content:
Speakers: Jayathma Wickramanayake & Francesco Pisano.
Host: Camille Chambinaud.
Sound Editors: Camille Chambinaud & Natalie Alexander.
Editor: Natalie Alexander.
Image: UN/Mette Lybye Poulsen.
Recorded & produced at the UN Library Geneva.

Holiday Special Episode - Library Insiders: Stacks, Ghosts and 007.

Welcome to this holiday special episode of The Next Page podcast! As 2019 draws to a close, we take you on a tour of the UN Library Geneva, which this year celebrates 100 years since its founding. How does the Library support multilateralism? You'll hear stories from four of our Library colleagues as they work to support research and understanding on multilateralism. Bonus: they also give us their tips for their favorite holiday reads! Find links to all of the resources they mention below. Enjoy, and happy holidays from the UN Library Geneva.
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Bienvenu.e dans cet épisode spécial de The Next Page! Pour la fin de l'année 2019, nous avons fait le tour de la Bibliothèque des Nations Unies à Genève qui a fêté ses 100 ans cette année. Comment est-ce que la Bibliothèque supporte le multilatéralisme? Vous en saurez plus en écoutant quatre histoires de collègues racontant comment leur travail soutient la recherche sur le multilateralisme. Et en bonus, vous entendrez des suggestions de lecture pour les fêtes! Les liens vers les resources sont mentionnées ci-après. Bonne écoute et bonnes fêtes!
Chapter 1: Sebastien Vernay
Sébastien Vernay est assistant bibliothécaire dans la section des services. Il anime les visites de groupe à la bibliothèque, vous trouverez plus d'information sur la page web dédiée: https://bit.ly/2PJJbL3.
Vous pouvez consulter le catalogue sur Global Search, et les différents guides de recherche ici: https://libraryresources.unog.ch/global.
Sa suggestion de lecture pour les fêtes es "L'ONU pour les Nuls", de Yves Berthelot et Jean-Michel Jakobowicz: https://bit.ly/2SaZO3J.
Chapter 2: Mélanie Kamar
Mélanie Kamar is a Team Analyst for the LONTAD Project (the Total Digital Access to the League of Nations Archives Project). To learn more about this five-year project to digitize the League of Nations Archives (around 15 million pages of content!), visit the website: https://lontad-project.unog.ch/.
You can also follow the project's unofficial mascot @lontadinho on Twitter at https://twitter.com/lontadinho. 
Mélanie's holiday read is A Feminist Manifesto in 15 suggestions by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: https://bit.ly/2EA7x3k. 
Chapter 3: Cristina Giordano
Cristina Giordano est cheffe du groupe de la gestion des connaissances dans la section des services de la Bibliothèque. Elle a participé à la préparation et mise en place de l'exposition "Stronger Multilateralism Through Knwoledge and Archives" à l'occasion de l'anniversaire des 100 ans et visible au 3ème étage de l'Angle A/B du Palais des Nations.
Sa suggestion de lecture pour les fêtes est "Genève Émois" de Marie-José Astre-Démoulin: https://www.ed-des-sables.ch/publications.htm#
Chapter 4: Stefan Vukotic 
Stefan Vukotic is the Chief of the Archives Management Unit. To learn more about the Centenary of Multilateralism in Geneva, head here: https://multilateralism100.unog.ch/front.
Stefan's book recommendation is The League of Nations: Perspectives from the Present: https://unipress.dk/udgivelser/l/the-league-of-nations/, edited by Karen Gram-Skjoldager and Haakon Ikonomou. 
Content:
Speakers: Sebastien Vernay, Mélanie Kamar, Cristina Giardano and Stefan Vukotic.
Hosts & Sound Editors: Natalie Alexander & Camille Chambinaud.
Images: UN Library Geneva.
Recorded and produced at the UN Library Geneva.
 
 
 

16: Women who Shaped Internationalism #LibraryTalk

In this episode of our Library Talk series, Katharina Rietzler and Myriam Piguet share their research and insights into some of the women who shaped internationalism. The discussion, moderated by the UN Library Geneva’s Scientific Advisor, Pierre-Etienne Bourneuf, highlights the contribution of women in the early years of international organizations and how this impacted the development of international affairs and international thought. They also share some of the challenges of conducting research on women in this field.
This Library Talk was part of the Centenary of Multilateralism in Geneva celebration. For more information, you can visit the website or listen to Episode 2, introducing our #Multilateralism100 series.
Katharina Rietzler is a researcher at the University of Sussex. She focuses on internationalism and American history. Stay tuned for a special episode on Florence Wilson, the first Librarian of the League of Nations, in 2020.
Myriam Piguet is a PhD student and researcher at the Global Studies Institute at the University of Geneva. She contributed to the book The League of Nations: Perspectives from the Present, Aarhus, Aarhus University Press, that you can find in our catalogue. She was also part of the 100elles project in Geneva, that renamed 100 streets with names of women who contributed to the historical development of the city and its area.
You can find more resources relating to this topic in the booklist put together for this event here. The UN Library Geneva also has research guides on Women & Gender Equality, Women and Global Diplomacy and Multilateralism available online.
If you are interested in gender related topics, we invite you to take a listen to Episode 10 with Ambassador Nazhat Shameen Khan on women in leadership, and to Episode 11 with Fatima Sator on how gender equality was included in the UN Charter.
Content:
Speakers: Katharina Rietzler & Myriam Piguet.
Moderation: Pierre-Étienne Bourneuf.
Host & Sound Editor: Camille Chambinaud.
Images: UN Library Geneva/Ingrid Louise Mondet.
Recorded and produced at the UN Library Geneva.

15: Multilateralism in Motion: the lasting impact & innovations of the League of Nations #Multilateralism100

Welcome to The Next Page, the podcast of the UN Library Geneva. This episode continues our #Multilateralism100 series, where we explore some of the issues and the people that have shaped multilateralism since the creation of the League of Nations to its transition to the United Nations today, as we mark the Centenary of Multilateralism in Geneva. 
What ideas are coming out today on the impact and the work of the League, and what opportunities for research are still to come? For this conversation, we had two academics in the studio, Karen Gram-Skjoldager (Associate Professor at Aarhus University) and Haakon Ikonomou (Associate Professor, University of Copenhagen), to share what they’re up to, and a recently published book that they edited, called The League of Nations: Perspectives from the Present. 
How did the League shape modern multilateralism, what are some innovations that have continued in today’s international organisations, what is being thought of and seen in new ways? They both share their views and some insights from the book, which brings in new ideas from a range of researchers currently exploring the workings of the League. 
Further resources: 
Read more at the Aarhus University Blog, The Invention of International Bureaucracy: https://projects.au.dk/inventingbureaucracy/blog/  as well as publications that have come out of the blog project: https://projects.au.dk/inventingbureaucracy/publications/  
Find out about the book, The League of Nations: Perspectives from the Present: https://unipress.dk/udgivelser/l/the-league-of-nations/    
Learn more about the Centenary of Multilateralism in Geneva: https://multilateralism100.unog.ch/. 
Content:
Speakers: Karen Gram-Skjoldager (Associate Professor, PhD, Aarhus University) and Haakon Ikonomou (Associate Professor, PhD, University of Copenhagen)
Host: Natalie Alexander.
Editor & Sound Editor: Natalie Alexander.
Images: Aarhus University & UN Library Geneva.
Recorded and produced at the UN Library Geneva.