Next year the UN will hold a ‘Summit of the Future’ billed as “a once-in-a-generation opportunity to enhance cooperation on critical challenges and to address gaps in global governance”. This talk seeks to explore the challenges and opportunities ahead for the UN:

• Can multilateralism be strengthened at a time of geopolitical tension and North-South mistrust?
• What are the implications of China’s increased engagement in a range of international institutions?
• What does the rise of ‘mini-lateral’ fora such as the G20 and the BRICS mean for diplomatic strategy and practice, and for UN reform?
• Can the UN harness innovation in science and technology to address current and future risks, and to meet the Sustainable Development Goals and the climate crisis?

Speaker bio:

Sam Daws is a Senior Practitioner Associate in the Department of Politics and International Relations at Oxford University. He focusses on the interface of multilateral policy, diplomatic strategy, and geopolitics. Sam has worked in multilateral policy roles for over 35 years. From 2000 to 2003 he served as First Officer in the Executive Office of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. He later served as Deputy Director (United Nations) in the UK Cabinet Office, supporting the Prime Minister’s co-chairing of the UN Panel on the creation of the Sustainable Development Goals. His previous roles included Senior Principal Research Analyst in the Multilateral Policy Directorate of the Foreign & Commonwealth Office, Executive Director of UNA-UK, and UK Representative of the United Nations Foundation. He has authored or co-edited 13 books on the UN including ‘The Oxford Handbook on the United Nations’ (OUP, 2nd edn. 2018) and ‘The Procedure of the UN Security Council’ (OUP, 4th edn. 2014).