Talk of the Week: Ambassador Rytis Paulauskas and Richard Gowan on the UN at a Crossroads: The Ukrainian War and the Challenge of Multilateral Diplomacy
For week 6, the Oxford Department of International Development is welcoming Rytis Paulauskas, UN representative for Lithuania, and Richard Gowan, UN director at the International Crisis Group, to give a talk titled ‘The UN at a Crossroads: The Ukrainian War and the Challenge of Multilateral Diplomacy.’ It will take place on Wednesday 1st June at 16:00 in the Queen Elizabeth House, Mansfield Road.
No one is better equipped to talk about multilateralism than Gowan, who wrote a weekly column on the subject between 2013 and 2019 called “Diplomatic Fallout” for the World Politics Review. More recently, Gowan has been directly involved with the UN’s response to Russian aggression, and especially the March resolution condemning Russian aggression, which he called ‘a pretty enormous diplomatic win for the Ukrainians and the US’ following the UN’s general assembly.
Paulauskas is equally involved in the assembly, recently making a statement where he criticised Russian aggression for trying to ‘undermine Ukraine’s sovereignty and independence and constitute a severe breach of international law and international agreements.’ There is no need to pre-book the talk, simply show up on the day and listen to cutting-edge political analysis by two world-leading experts in the field. For anyone with an interest in contemporary European geopolitics, this talk is a must-see.
Other talks and events going on in Oxford in week six include:
- For an intersection between maths, history, and feminist studies, Brigitte Stenhouse will be giving a talk on ‘Mary Somerville: being and becoming a mathematician in 19th-century Britain’ (Monday 30th May, 16:00, Maison Française d’Oxford).
- For anyone interested in Latin America and climate change, go listen to Dr Jose Maria Valenzuela and his talk titled ‘Understanding the implications of Net Zero for Latin America’ (Tuesday 31st May, 14:00, Oxford Martin School).
- And in a similar vein to ‘The Talk of Oxford: Week 4’, Julie Adams will be hosting a seminar in St Antony’s College titled ‘Getting older: Demographic challenges in South East Europe’ (Wednesday 1st June, 17:00).