The Stockholm Centre for International Law and Justice, in cooperation with the Swedish International Law Association and the Hans Blix Centre, invites you to a seminar with
Description:
In the wake of the Second World War, the United Nations facilitated and oversaw a momentous transition – that from the age of empires to the age of sovereignty. That process of decolonization was often rocky and conflictual, forcing the new organization to innovate with regards to mediating conflict and, eventually, to develop various peace-building techniques. Ralph Bunche, one of the most distinguished diplomats of the postwar era, played a key role in this evolution, alongside—until his brutal assassination 75 years ago by Jewish extremists on the streets of Jerusalem–Swedish humanitarian Folke Bernadotte. Together, the two forged a new model of international conflict mediation and helped plant the seeds of what Bunche later called his proudest achievement: multilateral UN peacekeeping. As the international system absorbed dozens of new states in the postwar era, the UN became the central actor managing that liberatory, joyous, but sometimes violent process. This talk, building on my new biography of Bunche and the UN, argues that this was one of the UN’s greatest but often unsung achievements of the 20th century.
Bio:
Kal Raustiala is the Promise Institute Distinguished Professor of Comparative and International Law at UCLA Law School and Professor at the UCLA International Institute. Since 2007 he has served as Director of the UCLA Ronald W. Burkle Center for International Relations. Professor Raustiala has been a visiting professor at Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Princeton, and many other law schools in the US and abroad. Past Vice President of the American Society of International Law, his research focuses on international law, international relations, and intellectual property. His recent publications include “Why the United Nations Still Matters,” Foreign Affairs, June 2023 (with Viva Iemanja Jeronimo); “Multistakeholder Regulation and the Future of the Internet,” 75 Federal Communications Law Journal 2 (2023); “The Fight Against China’s Bribe Machine,” Foreign Affairs, October 2021 (with Nicolas Barile); “NGOs in International Treatymaking,” in Duncan Hollis, ed, The Oxford Guide to Treaties, 2nd Edition (Oxford University Press, 2020); and “Innovation in the Information Age: The United States, China, and the Struggle Over Intellectual Property in the 21st Century,” 58 Columbia Journal of Transnational Law (June 2020). His books include Global Governance in a World of Change (Michael Barnett, Jon Pevehouse, and Kal Raustiala, eds, Cambridge, 2021); The Knockoff Economy: How Imitation Sparks Innovation (Oxford, 2012) (with Christopher Sprigman), which has been translated into Chinese, Korean, and Japanese; and Does the Constitution Follow the Flag? The Evolution of Territoriality in American Law (Oxford, 2009). His biography of the late UN diplomat, civil rights advocate, and UCLA alum Ralph Bunche, The Absolutely Indispensable Man: Ralph Bunche, the United Nations, and the Fight to End Empire, was published in 2023 by Oxford.
No registration required.