Overview of existing UN study programs worldwide

Background: article on UN Studies

The following information is taken from a joint paper "UN Studies: Foundations of an emerging field of study", written by Kirsten Haack, Julia Harfensteller und Henrike Paepcke (unpublished).

In our paper, we critically review UN research and teaching and offer a vision for a new field of studies: UN Studies. We propose a creative common of UN Studies, demonstrate why an integrated field of studies is needed, and define core features and methods of teaching.

Two of our questions concerning the status quo:

• What are the main problems of UN teaching and research today?
• What are the wider implications and main trends? What are the latest initiatives in UN research and teaching?

Detecting deficits in research and teaching

The overview of study programs rests on a general analysis of deficits in training and research, inter alia:

teaching:

• UN Studies not an established part of the IR curriculum
• UN teaching ‘buried’ in various topics and programs
• learning takes place within traditional disciplinary frameworks, each with own ontology, language, theoretical approaches, methodologies
• boundaries of UN Studies fuzzy, core underdefined
• competing demands of academic learning and ‘training’ for professional career

research:

• disciplinary research cooperation does not produce truly synthesized, interdisciplinary knowledge
• produced knowledge selective and partial
• no encompassing, coherent knowledge base
• some UN-specific issues and dimensions do not attract academic interest, others “overfished”
• lack of UN-focused theory-building
• missing creative common and identity Please note: We describe these deficits in more detail in our article. Also see our mission statement - which is still a work in progress and thus open for discussion!

Academic initiatives paving the way towards UN Studies

Based on this analysis, we went on to identify academic initatives that go beyond the traditional UN curriculum: interesting and innovative programs and projects in both teaching and research. We found a growing number of UN-focused summer schools and workshops, special programs, research projects and in particular postgraduate degrees

some highlights:

• consortium of three US universities, comprising of MIT, Harvard University and Tufts University, launched a “UN Studies Initiative” in 2005 -> see the upcoming publication of Manuel Fröhlich on UN Studies
• the UN Intensive Summer Study Program of Seton Hall University’s Whitehead School of Diplomacy and International Relations
• Syracuse University's professional career track program “Transnational Organizations and Leadership"
• Kentucky State University’s Master in Public Administration with a specialization in International Administration and Development.
• in general, the evolving field of peace studies
• UN Global Teaching and Learning Project
• UN System Staff College and UNITAR
• Model United Nations and other simulations
• individual initiatives / classes
• Suffolk University’s UN Studies Program -> Luise Druke

Taken together, these initiatives are scattered, isolated, thus neither well connected nor institutionalized (except maybe for MUN)

Looking at the research side, we found that an overview of the research field would require an in-depth analysis of all related publications in neighboring fields. However, we would like to point out to the following programs and projects:

• autonomous research institutes within the UN: Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR), the UN Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD) and the International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (INSTRAW)
• other UN-focused academic research centers or advocacy groups, mainly located in Western countries (e.g. Reform the UN, Global Policy Forum, Better World Fund, UN Security Council Report, Citizens for Global Solutions)
• few (known) examples of UN Studies outside the Western Hemisphere, such as Department of International and UN Studies at the Sun Moon University in South Korea, or Institute of UN Studies in New Delhi
• insufficient information about the perception of the UN in African or Arab States -> Ibrahim Saleh
• WFUNA and WFUNA-Youth offer guideliens for youth how to conduct research about the UN

Conclusion

• many promising initiatives bearing the “UN label”
• UN as a subject of study is marginalized within disciplinaries
• Knowledge is produced and transmitted in incoherent “bits and pieces”
• geographical dominance of North American and European institutions
  Therefore,
• future UN Studies need to connect all parts of the world
• not well-known UN-focused programs need to be brought more to the forefront of our attention.
• we need to shed more light onto the specific motivations, interests and ambitions of the younger generation vis-à-vis the United Nations.

-- HenrikePaepcke - 09 Jun 2008