2011 CGS Conference: Global Challenges, Global Solutions

Event Description

In March 2011 an earthquake and tsunami in Japan and a crackdown in Libya showed the same thing. Some crises are too big for one government to meet alone. The 2011 Citizens for Global Solutions (CGS) conference, “Global Challenges: Global Solutions”, spent a full day on issue briefings about that problem. It met in Washington, DC, on Thursday 17 March 2011, and ended with a reception at the Carriage House near Dupont Circle. Lobby Day on Capitol Hill followed on Friday 18 March.

Don Kraus opened with a report on the treaties before the Senate and on House efforts to cut or condition UN funding. Suzanne Nossel then argued for using the United Nations and other multilateral bodies as tools of American foreign policy. A panel held with the World Federalist Institute asked who governs the world. It compared the G8 and the G20, two groups of leading economies, with the United Nations. The featured recording above is the keynote by Nossel. The other recordings from the day are listed below.

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Recordings

• Keynote address · Suzanne Nossel, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs

  Nossel described “smart power” as using the full range of tools, including the UN and regional bodies. She showed how building coalitions across regions had won results. They ranged from a Human Rights Council resolution protecting civil society groups to sanctions on Iran. She also urged the United States to pay its UN dues.

• Opening report: international issues and the treaties before the Senate · Don Kraus, CEO

  Kraus surveyed the year’s gains, including the New START treaty and UN action on Libya. New START is a treaty between the United States and Russia to reduce nuclear arms. Kraus warned that 177 House members had voted to defund the United Nations. He urged members to lobby the next day for treaties and a genocide prevention bill.

• Panel, Who Governs the World: the evolving role of the G8, G20 and the United Nations · Romaric Roignan

  Roignan set out the priorities of the 2011 French chair of the G20. They included the international monetary system, volatile commodity prices and new ways to finance development. He argued that informal forums like the G20 should work alongside institutions such as the UN.

• Panel, Who Governs the World · Toni Harmer

  Harmer traced the G8 from 1975 and the rise of the G20 after the 2008 financial crisis. Harmer argued that the G20 can support the United Nations rather than replace it. It can do so by setting agendas and pushing reform of bodies such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank.

• Panel, Who Governs the World · Aldo Caliari

  Aldo Caliari spoke on the same panel.

Titles are as of the event date.

Quotations are taken from the recording’s automatic captions.