Background and Problem Statement

Today's UN research and teaching suffer from various shortcomings concerning contents, structures, the transfer and creation of knowledge about the UN.  

Establishing an integrative  field of UN Studies remains a tremendous challenge.

First and foremost, UN research and teaching tends to be overlooked or remains invisible. Although we find an ever-growing amount of UN Studies-related information on the internet, it is scattered everywhere: buried in or spread out across institutions, research and study programs, and their respective homepages. The information takes different forms, addresses various target groups at all levels, is more theory or practice-oriented, formal or informal. Moreover, most programs or institutions that concern with UN Studies issues  provide their pieces of information in the classical fashion by attracting users to their homepage, where the information is pooled, thus not easily researchable and accessible. 

The resulting lack of overview and quick access to knowledge on the internet is a particular concern of practitioners-turned-educators, to give an example.  These UN practitioners that teach at universities or deliver training at NGOs, the military, international and regional organizations feel there is rare if not zero guidance, what to do and how to do it – and the struggle to answer these questions is felt to be disproportionate to the time and effort that is actually spent on the actual training.

Another perceived deficit is the lack of a concept of teaching the UN as a subject, a large void that raises general questions such as whether lectures should start off with the UN Charter. As a consequence, the need arises for an advanced UN Studies master syllabus and sub-syllabi on related subject matters, including reading and reference lists. None of this exists yet – or it may exist, but not in an integrated or visible fashion.

The knowledge base idea has been the outcome of another UNSA project, proposed by one of our members, Jamie Arbuckle: Cyber Shelf for Reference Material on UN Studies.