On 5-6 June 2019 in Washington, D.C., the Stimson Center, Global Challenges Foundation, One Earth Future Foundation and Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung New York Office convened a Global Policy Dialogue on Global Security, Justice, and Economic Institutions.
Among other luminaries, the gathering featured the President of the General Assembly María Fernanda Espinosa Garcés, former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, former Nigerian Foreign Minister and UN Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Ibrahim Gambari, Chair of the World Refugee Council and former Canadian Foreign Minister Lloyd Axworthy, and UN 75 Special Advisor and Under-Secretary-General Fabrizio Hochschild.
The dialogue’s fifty participants—representing diverse global and regional policy-making, scholarly, activist, and practitioner perspectives—gathered to respond collectively to major global policy challenges associated with security, justice and economic institutions at the global and regional levels; to better understand current global and regional responses (including those championed by United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres); and to consider and refine major global and regional governance innovation initiatives and the strategies to bring them to fruition.
Attention was given to several global institutions, such as the United Nations Security Council, General Assembly, Peacebuilding Commission, Human Rights Council, International Criminal Court, International Court of Justice, Group of 20 (G20) countries, International Monetary Fund, World Bank, and World Trade Organization.
Building on the momentum of the “modalities resolution”, adopted in June 2019, for the commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the UN (A/RES/73/299), the dialogue concluded with discussions about new global efforts, such as the UN 2020 Initiative and Together First campaign and the knowledge-based Platform on Global Security, Justice & Governance Innovation, to advance a global governance innovation and modernization agenda between now and the September 2020 UN Leaders Summit in New York.
This dialogue is the second in a four-part series of global policy dialogues. Together, the four-part series aims to advance a global consensus around several of the best recommendations for improving international responses to deadly conflict and weak states, to the challenges inherent in the hyperconnected global economy, and to the risk of runaway climate change. Their recommendations will be promoted at myriad international fora on the Road to 2020, including the 68th United Nations Civil Society Conference (26-28 August 2019), “UNGA Week” (23-27 September 2019), and the Doha Forum (14-15 December 2019).