Linked with our presenttions Why are lessons spurned, rather than learned? Also with UNHCR Should Lead the International Humanitarian Enterprise, and finally with Security Council Reform, Problems and Prospects in September 2005.
He asks: « Is the idea of a forward-looking history an oxymoron or a constructive way of improving the future by learning from past mistakes? According to Professor Thomas G. Weiss, it is not an oxymoron, and « learning from the past may be difficult, but that is no excuse for not trying ». With his leadership, this is exactly what the United Nations Intellectual History Project (UNIHP) has set-out as its goal. As he explains, the project’s research seeks to « stand on the shoulders of past giants in order to confront future challenges, to learn from past successes and failures in order to improve multilateral cooperation in the future ». (Read more on this WFUNA-page).
Thomas G. Weiss – USA
He says: « The United Nations Association of the United States of America (UNA-USA) is the nation’s largest grassroots foreign policy organization and the leading center of policy research on the UN and global issues. UNA-USA Policy Briefs are intended to provide background and stimulate discussion on issues related to US foreign policy and the work of the UN. For more information, please visit www.unausa.org ». (Read more on UNA-USA).
He is Presidential Professor of Political Science at The CUNY Graduate Center and Director of the Ralph Bunche Institute for International Studies, where he is co-director of the United Nations Intellectual History Project and editor of Global Governance.
He was Research Director of the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty, Research Professor at Brown University’s Watson Institute for International Studies, Executive Director of the Academic Council on the UN System and of the International Peace Academy, a member of the UN secretariat, and a consultant to several public and private agencies. He has written or edited some 35 books and numerous scholarly articles about multilateral approaches to international peace and security, humanitarian action, and sustainable development. (Read more on unihp).
His latest books are: Military-Civilian Interactions: Intervening in Humanitarian Crises (Rowman & Littlefield, 1999); Humanitarian Challenges and Intervention (Westview, 2000), with Cindy Collins, 2nd edition; and The United Nations and Changing World Politics (Westview, 2001), with Roger A. Coate and David P. Forsythe, 3rd edition; Ahead of the Curve? UN Ideas and Global Challenges (Indiana University Press, 2001), with Louis Emmerij and Richard Jolly; and The Responsibility To Protect: Research, Bibliography, and Background (International Commission for Intervention and State Sovereignty, 2001), with Don Hubert. (Read more on Humanitarianisme & War Project).
He is chair-elect of ACUNS and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, International Institute for Strategic Studies, and International Studies Association; the editor of Routledge’s “Global Institutions Series” and of Indiana University Press’s “UN, Intellectual History Project Series”; and on the editorial boards of the Third World Quarterly and Journal of Global Social Policy
and of the Foreign Policy Association. He is married to Priscilla Read, and has two daughters, Hannah and Rebeccah. (Read the rest on his
complete CV).
links:
the progress report of December 2005, and also the one of December 2004;
his books on Amazon;
his homepage for UN jobs;
The Watson Institute for International Studies;
Governance, Good Governance and global Governance: Conceptual and actual challenges.