Pardee School Graduate Students Visit UN and Diplomatic Missions in NYC
Between January 16 and 18, 2023, graduate students from Boston University’s Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies traveled to New York where they visited the United Nations (UN) and the international missions of numerous smaller countries.
During their trip, headed up by Ambassador Vesko Garčević, Pardee School Professor of the Practice of International Relations, students received a guided tour of the UN headquarters and visited five missions as well as a number of dignitaries. These included the Nigerian Permanent Mission to the UN where students met with Tijjani Muhammad-Bande, former President of the UN General Assembly, Nigerian Ambassador, and a BU alumni; the Montenegrin Mission to the UN, at which students explored the efforts a small country makes to build up its visibility in the UN; the Albanian mission to the UN where students discussed how a small country can contribute to global peace and security; the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Kazakhstan to the UN where students explored how a country with such a geographical position develops its own unique diplomatic agenda in the UN; as well as the Permanent Mission of Uruguay to the UN.
In their meetings, students learned about how much these states use the potential that multilateralism offers and what they do to overcome challenges stemming from their limited resources and inbuilt perception of their secondary role in global affairs. Following the visits to various missions, an alumni reception was hosted by Pardee School Dean’s Advisory Board member Robert Novembre (Pardee ’91) on January 17.