Class at the United Nations

The International College has been offering courses on the United Nations, for the past few semesters. This semester, the focus has been on the Secretaries General of the United Nations, the office itself and the work that each has accomplished over their period in office. Following a general tour of the facilities, Ms. Swati Dave of the Department of Public Information coordinated three sessions with UN officials.
From the Office of the Secretary-General, a recently-appointed political officer Tarun Chhabra spoke on the newly released Report of the Secretary-General’s High-level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change. As part of the panel secretariat, Chhabra was able to present an insightful briefing on the contents and significance of the report as well as field questions from the class on issues from reactions to the report to getting at job at the United Nations (more on this later).
As it has been acknowledged many times over, the world has gone through tremendous change since the time when the United Nations was first founded. More recently, it has been recognized that the view of the Secretariat has changed from “a chief administrator of the organization” to a “principal UN organ in its own right.” With this, the Secretary-General, Koffi Annan has since commissioned the Secretariat to prepare a report on the “threats and challenges” faced today by the world community and recommendations for change. The way in which the report was prepared addresses concerns for the world as a community, acknowledging that “collective security is still relevant and why we need reform.” The report then divides issues into five “baskets” (categories): infectious disease, poverty, environmental degradation; inter-intra state war (ethnic cleansing, etc); nuclear, biological, chemical weapons; international terrorism; and organized crime (money laundering, illegal trafficking). While each is in its own category, it is important to note that many of the problems are not stand-alone but serve to reinforce one another.
The report outlines these problems and the recommendations to deal with them. This was reached through much research and collaborative efforts to collect up-to-date information that can stand up to scientific as well as practical inquiry.
Of interest to students interested in working in or with the United Nations, Chhabra also shared some advice as to how to go about doing so:
“The most important thing is to work in various community institutes around the UN: Networks for Peace Keeping, NYU Center for International Cooperation, etc. Do a lot of analytical work for UN. People in the UN deal with crises and don’t have too much time for research. It is a little more difficult for US citizens to come in as interns, as there is a rotating quota system for the internships. Internships are good … and the best information comes from UN people in the field.