EXPERTS ADVISORY

As the United Nations gets ready to choose Portugal’s Antonio Guterres as its ninth secretary-general, University of Michigan experts comment on the big challenges that lie ahead and the legacy of Ban Ki-moon who will step down at the end of 2016.

Legacy of Ban Ki-moon

John Ciorciari is an associate professor at the Ford School of Public Policy. His research focuses on Southeast Asia and examines foreign policy strategies, human rights and the reform of international economic institutions.

“Ban leaves a legacy of cautious, often listless responses to external crises and internal challenges facing the United Nations,” he said. “From the Syrian refugee crisis to the surge in sexual abuse scandals involving UN peacekeepers, Guterres needs to use his bully pulpit more boldly to regain some of the office’s diminished clout.”
Contact: 734-615-6947, johncior@umich.edu

On Antonio Guterres’ selection

Susan Waltz is a professor at the Ford School of Public Policy. Her research focuses on historical origins of international human rights instruments and the political processes that produced them. She currently serves on an executive committee overseeing the work of the Quaker United Nations Office, New York.

“I am happy to hear the Security Council has united around Antonio Guterres,” she said. “I do hope that someday there will be a woman secretary-general, but given the challenges of the moment, I don’t think there was a better pick. Guterres is well-positioned to lead the UN.”

Contact: 734-615-8683, swaltz@umich.edu

Climate Change

Rosina Bierbaum, professor of natural resources and environment and environmental health sciences, is an expert on environmental policy, sustainable development and climate change adaptation.

She serves on the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology and chairs the Science and Technical Advisory Panel of the Global Environment Facility. She was a lead convening author of the climate adaptation chapter in the latest U.S. National Climate Assessment and a review editor on a 2014 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report about climate change impacts, adaptation and vulnerability.

“The new secretary-general arrives at a crucial time for the sustainability and stability of our planet,” Bierbaum said. “Climate change is increasing the threats to environmental security as droughts, heatwaves, water scarcity and extreme storms increase. Implementing the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Climate Accord are necessary steps to avert a burgeoning of environmental refugees in the coming decades. As the leader of the United Nations, Mr. Guterres has a key role to play in ensuring social, economic, and environmental sustainability.”

Contact: 734-763-8675, rbierbau@umich.edu

Joe Arvai, professor of natural resources and environment and business administration, is director of the Erb Institute for Global Sustainable Enterprise. His expertise is in the area of decision-making, corporate sustainability and the triple-bottom-line.

“It’s no secret that sustainability is front and center with respect to the current mission and mandate of the UN,” he said. “We don’t have to look past last year’s Sustainable Development Goals to see that the vast majority of issues before the UN today touch its sustainability mission.

“From the obvious issues like climate change, to the less obvious—but equally pressing—issues that address the quest for peace, poverty reduction and equality, it’s clear that the UN’s sustainability agenda is both broad and deep. It’ll be the task of the new secretary-general to make sure the UN stays on point, while at the same time confronting some challenging tradeoffs across environmental, social and economic objectives.”

Contact: 734-647-3891, 734-834-2075 (cell), jlarvai@umich.edu

Andy Hoffman, is the Holcim (US) Professor of Sustainable Enterprise at the Ross School of Business and School of Natural Resources and Environment. He also serves as education director of the Graham Sustainability Institute. His research uses a sociological perspective to understand cultural and institutional aspects of environmental issues for organizations.

Contact: 734-763-9455, ajhoff@umich.edu

Immigration

James Hathaway, professor of law and director of the Refugee and Asylum Law Program, is a leading authority on international refugee law. He is editor of the Immigration and Nationality Law Reports.

“The UN secretary-general’s September summit truly failed to deliver,” he said. “Following a year in which more attention has been paid to the messy and unfair way in which the global asylum system operates than ever before, this summit presented a golden opportunity to galvanize support for a shift to a managed system of refugee protection. What we got instead was a pious declaration confirming that states should do all of the things that the Refugee Convention they’ve signed already requires them to do — with not a single concrete initiative to persuade them to live up to their formal obligations.”

Read his complete opinion piece: http://bit.ly/2dwAteU

Contact: jch@umich.edu

Rita Chin, associate professor of history, is an expert on comparative European migrations, ethnic minorities, transnationalism and modern Europe.

“The complicated issues surrounding refugees and immigration are the great questions facing the world today,” she said. “It is not simply a matter of offering humanitarian aid and immediate relief, but also thinking creatively about how to reimagine societies as open and diverse.”

Contact: rchin@umich.edu, 734-615-9320

Poverty

Luke Shaefer, associate professor of social work and public policy and director of U-M’s Poverty Solutions. He can discuss the measurement of poverty and alternative metrics for measuring hardship. He has published articles on rising extreme poverty in the U.S. and the effects of major anti-poverty programs and low-wage work, and is co-author of “$2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America.”

Contact: 734-936-5065, lshaefer@umich.edu