A conversation with Ambassador Colin Keating, former Representative for New Zealand on the UN Security Council.
The Asian region has become a source of global geo-strategic stress. From the slowly escalating tensions with North Korea to the crisis in Syria, the UN Security Council has failed to maintain international peace and security as it was mandated to do. Instead, the Security Council has often been relegated to managing the consequences of civil war - a task it was not designed for and struggles to perform. How can the Security Council reassert its leadership on peace and security issues within the Asian region? What actions are needed for the Security Council to fulfil its mandate?
Ambassador Keating joins Mr Sebastian von Einsiedel, Director of the UNU Centre for Policy Research, for a conversation on how the UN Security Council can better fulfil its mandate to maintain peace and security in the face the challenges posed by North Korea, Syria, and other crises in the Asian region.
About the speaker
Colin Keating is a distinguished former New Zealand diplomat and public servant. He is recognised as a leading global authority on the UN Security Council. Until recently, he served as Special Adviser for New Zealand’s 2015/16 term on the UN Security Council and, prior, he was Special Envoy for the Prime Minister of New Zealand. From 2005 to 2011, he was the founding Executive Director of Security Council Report, a monitoring organisation in New York, and concurrently, Senior Research Fellow at Columbia University.
From 1993 to 1996, Keating served as the New Zealand Ambassador to the United Nations in New York and represented New Zealand on the Security Council. He was Council President during the 1994 genocide in Rwanda and led the Council Mission to Somalia. He also chaired the Security Council Committee on Sanctions against Iraq and was actively involved in reforming the United Nations, serving as Co-Chair of the General Assembly working group on UN reform.