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Dear Readers, In August, 2006, Global21 launched its first Special Coverage of the crisis in Lebanon. For the first time, student journalists in Lebanon, Israel, and throughout the world, had a voice in reporting the news. Now, three months later, I have the privilege of introducing our second Special Coverage of The United Nations in Transition. Our online edition comes at a time when Kofi Annan is finishing his ten year term as Secretary General, UN peacekeepers are second only to U.S. troops in number deployed around the world, and calls for reform within the world body are ever growing. The collection of articles featured in this Special Coverage includes the voices of students from six chapters including, The Yale Globalist, The Toronto Globalist, The Sydney Globalist, The Cape Town Globalist, The Cambridge Globalist, and The Peking Globalist. In addition to including opinion pieces from each of these chapters, two Special Events are also covered in this online edition. Tiffany Franke of The Yale Globalist reports on Deputy Secretary General of the United Nations Mark Malloch Brown’s final public speech in office, an event which took place at the Yale Law School on November 1. Likewise, Ilana Raburn of The Cambridge Globalist recounts a heated debate in The Cambridge Union on October 26, entitled, “This House believes that the UN is a dead loss.” (To find out which side won, you’ll have to keep reading!) Global21’s Special Coverage of the UN in Transition offers the voice of students on five continents, commenting, analyzing, and imagining the international system in the months and years to come. It is my hope that the contributions will give voice to the numerous paths that the United Nations can take in future years. And while the students involved in this coverage may disagree on certain issues—from Security Council reform, to peacekeeping involvement, to the role of regional organizations—they agree on one thing: The United Nations is fundamental to the world that they will inherit as the next generation of international leaders. Thank you in advance for reading, Elizabeth Dickinson |
