Whither UN Security Council and the ICC?
In Conversation with
Hasmik Egian
Hosted by:
Bassam Haddad
Monday 25 November 2024
2:00 PM EST | 9:00 PM Palestine
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Last Wednesday the United States cast its lone veto in the UN Security Council on a draft resolution that demanded an “ immediate, unconditional, and permanent ceasefire [in Gaza].” It is the U.S.’s vote on 5th veto. Why? What went on behind the scenes? Also last week, the ICC approved Karim Khan’s request for arrest warrants for P.M. Benjamin Netanyahu and his recently fired Minister of Defense, Yoav Galant. The warrant exposed the hypocrisy of most Western governments with an outpouring of hysterical indignationin the media and on social network platforms. The same governments that had applauded the ICC arrest warrant for Russian President Putinin May 2022 for alleged war crimesin Ukraine. Our speaker will address these developments and their implications.
Featuring
Hasmik Egian was the Director of the UN Security Council Affairs Division (SCAD) – the largest Division in the Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs (DPPA) between March 2016 and June 2022. Over the span of 30 years, Hasmik held senior leadership and management positions in the United Nations system, in the areas of political and civil affairs, public information, and program management. Egian’s UN assignments were wide-ranging - from peacekeeping (Cambodia, Tajikistan), peacebuilding (Somalia, Syria) to humanitarian and development work (Iraq, UNICEF in Tanzania and the Middle East Region). She served both at the UN headquarters in New York, as well as in the field in complex conflict and post-conflict operational environments. Prior to her leadership of the Security Council Affairs Division, Hasmik served as Chief of Staff in two UN Special Political Missions.
Bassam Haddad (Host) is Founding Director of the Middle East and Islamic Studies Program and Associate Professor at the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University. He is the author of Business Networks in Syria: The Political Economy of Authoritarian Resilience (Stanford University Press, 2011) and co-editor of A Critical Political Economy of the Middle East (Stanford University Press, 2021). Bassam is Co-Founder/Editor of Jadaliyya Ezine and Executive Director of the Arab Studies Institute. He serves as Founding Editor of the Arab Studies Journal and the Knowledge Production Project. He is co-producer/director of the award-winning documentary film, About Baghdad, and director of the acclaimed series Arabs and Terrorism. Bassam is Executive Producer of Status Podcast Channel and Director of the Middle East Studies Pedagogy Initiative (MESPI). He received MESA's Jere L. Bacharach Service Award in 2017 for his service to the profession. Currently, Bassam is working on his second Syria book titled Understanding The Syrian Tragedy: Regime, Opposition, Outsiders (forthcoming, Stanford University Press).