United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan was the keynote speaker at a day-long conference to examine whether reform efforts discussed at last month's UN General Assembly meeting are being implemented, as well as obstacles and opportunities for future reform. American Interests and UN Reform: Report of the Task Force on the United Nations, a 154-page report developed by former U.S. Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell and former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich for the United States Institute of Peace at the request of Congress, was also discussed.

Senator Mitchell, a senior research scholar at SIPA, chaired the conference hosted by the Institute and Columbia's Center for International Conflict Resolution at the School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA), . The conference took stock of UN reform efforts with task force members, UN leaders, and scholars, who examined the achievements, obstacles, and opportunities for the UN.

Agenda: New Perspectives on Reforming the United Nations

The Rotunda, Low Library
Columbia University
October 17, 2005

9:30 AM - 10:00 AM: Welcome

• Columbia University President Lee Bollinger and U.S. Institute of Peace President Richard Solomon

10:00 AM- 10:30 AM: Keynote Address

• UN Secretary General Kofi Annan

10:30 AM - 12:00 PM: United Nations Reform: Reflecting on Successes and Obstacles

• Lee Feinstein
  Council on Foreign Relations


• Ed Luck
  Columbia University


• Tod Lindberg
  Hoover Institution


• Moderator:
  Senator George J. Mitchell

2:00 PM - 3:30 PM: Opportunities Ahead for Achieving Real Reform at the United Nations

• Ann-Marie Slaughter
  Princeton University


• Danielle Pletka
  American Enterprise Institute


• Mark Malloch Brown
  Executive Office of the Secretary-General


• Moderator:
  Senator George J. Mitchell

3:30 PM - 4:00 PM: Closing Remarks

For more information about the Institute of Peace, please contact Iris Pilika in the Office of Public Affairs and Communications at (202) 429-3828 or at ipilika@usip.org.