Our featured presenter for the month of April is Ed Elmendorf. Our discussion will focus on “The Board of Peace and the United Nations Security Council: Cooperation or Conflict?”
Ed Elmendorf has over 60 years of engagement in and with United Nations institutions. He served as an American Diplomat at the US Mission to the UN in New York City, in the mid-1960s. He served as Assistant to US Ambassadors to the United Nations Adlai Stevenson and Arthur Goldberg and as Executive Officer for the US Delegation in the General Assembly’s Third Committee responsible for social and human rights issues.
Ed left the Foreign Service in 1970 for what became 30 years in the World Bank. His Bank employment covered policy planning, human resources, country development strategy and macroeconomic policy, and then health development planning and financing. He co-authored the book Better Health in Africa, published by the Bank in 1994. Following his retirement from the World Bank in1970, Ed led the Washington DC Chapter of the UN Association of the USA (UNA-USA), and was elected to the National Council of UNA-USA volunteers and then the National Board of Directors of UNA-USA, and was then selected as President and CEO of UNA-USA. Moving to Boulder in 2024, Ed joined the Board of UNA-BC, where he has taken the lead on the creation of two Intergenerational Model UN Security Council meetings.
Below are links to two recent articles by Ed Elmendorf on our topic of the Board of Peace and the UN Security Council. The first article argues that although Donald Trump’s proposed Board of Peace (BoP) is implicitly critical of the United Nations and designed to operate independently of it, the initiative could paradoxically create an opportunity for the UN to regain relevance and credibility amid financial strain and declining global confidence. The second provides an analysis of the structure, authority, and implications of the Board of Peace as established under UN Security Council Resolution 2803. It suggests the BoP may act as a catalyst for institutional reform and innovation within the UN rather than simply a rival. We will explore these themes during Ed’s presentation and discussion on April 7.
https://impakter.com/trumps-board-of-peace-can-provide-a-new-opportunity-for-the-united-nations/
https://impakter.com/trumps-board-of-peace-explained-mandate-power-and-global-implications
Location: Boulder Creek Room of the Main Branch of the Boulder Public Library