Following the recently released report of the Task Force on the United Nations, Thomas Pickering and Robert Einhorn discussed the UN’s performance in preventing catastrophic terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.  The key findings and recommendations included:

  • Adopting in the General Assembly a definition of terrorism and passing a comprehensive convention condemning all forms of terrorism
  • Promoting the “naming of names” that is, the United States should push the Security Council to have the 1373 Committee publicly list state sponsors of terrorism
  • Increasing the focus of the International Atomic Energy Agency must increase its focus on threats from nonstate actors and expand its relatively new function of investigating nuclear trafficking networks

Speakers

  • Thomas Pickering
    The Boeing Company, Member of the Task Force on the United Nations, and former U.S. Ambassador to the UN
  • Robert Einhorn
    Center for Strategic and International Studies, Lead Expert with the Task Force on the United Nations
  • Gary Matthews, U.S. Institute of Peace, Moderator

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Latest Publications

China and Ukraine: Pulling Its Weight with Russia or Potemkin Peacemaker?

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With conflicts raging in Gaza, Lebanon, Ukraine and Sudan, concerns related to the extremist group ISIS may seem overtaken by these other conflicts. After all, Iraq declared the group’s military defeat in 2017 after the territory held by the extremists was retaken by Iraqi government forces in partnership with the United States. Yet just over a month ago, U.S. and Iraqi forces conducted a joint military raid against the group, killing nine senior ISIS leaders who were hiding in the rugged Hamrin Mountains in northern Iraq. This raid comes off the heels of the UK’s domestic intelligence chief stating that the group is positioning itself as a resurgent threat. Indeed, ISIS has conducted over 150 attacks so far this year in Iraq and Syria, more than those claimed by the group in 2023.

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