United Nations Tunes Up for First International Jazz Day – NYTimes.com

Important global meetings at the General Assembly.  Bring your own saxophone:

“Jazz is a great music that I feel has never been given its just due or recognition for having affected so many lives in various cultures throughout the world,” said Mr. Hancock, who was the driving force behind the designation and is a special ambassador for the organization.

“Unesco is exactly the proper setting to do that. With these musicians from various nations, we’re really showing a vision for globalization that’s a positive one.”Monday night’s concert follows similar shows on Friday night in Paris, once a home to expatriate American players like Dexter Gordon, Sidney Bechet, Bud Powell and Archie Shepp; and at sunrise Monday morning in New Orleans, considered the birthplace of jazz. Scheduled to attend all three events is Irina Bokova, a former Bulgarian minister of foreign affairs, who is now director general of Unesco.

“I think there is a lot of symbolism around jazz and the multiculturalism and diversity of which it speaks,” she said in a telephone interview from Paris. “If you ask what jazz is for me, I’d say it’s freedom, human dignity and boundless spirit, which makes it a very very powerful universal force. We say around here that jazz was born in the United States, but is owned by the world.”

via United Nations Tunes Up for First International Jazz Day – NYTimes.com.

Palestine Trumps Arab Spring at the GA

Can you put yourself in the shoes of the Turkish prime minister or Iranian president?  They used their speeches to bash Israel and the West–but to what extent can you empathize or understand their role?

The stars of the week so far might have been the winners of the Arab Spring–but the issues above seem to take precedence.

By rights, this should be the year of Arab uprisings at the yearly gathering of presidents, kings and other potentates. Some of the world’s longest-serving tyrants (and once star attractions among the weeklong marathon of speeches) have been overthrown. The fresh faces here represent nascent Arab governments that profess to want to follow the principles of human rights and good government that the United Nations embodies.

Undoubtedly there have been some thrilling moments for them — in particular a pantheon of world leaders spending several hours making somewhat self-congratulatory speeches about the success of the United Nations in supporting the Libyan rebels. But new tensions in the Palestinian-Israeli dispute largely overshadowed the Arab Spring.

via Israeli-Palestinian Dispute Upstages Arab Spring at U.N. – NYTimes.com.

Tune in to the General Assembly 66th Session

Skip Modern Family and get your geopolitical fix by watching the UN General Assembly, ongoing this week.  Ongoing speeches, important global issues, and the latest negotiation drama.   Your guide to ongoing GA events here, and all of the UN here.

Live streams via UN Webcast, ABC News, HuffPo.  Also, the UN News Centre produces “Backstage buzz” with some behind-the-scenes look to give you a better sense of being there.

And from The Lede, what kind of movie would the UN GA session be?  Action thriller? (Only the clips over 50+ years) Drama? (Rarely).  C-Span sponsored presentations? (Yep).  But still, the importance is elevated by the drum pounding in this GA short, produced by a couple of 20-something junior staffers, including one from Columbia School of Journalism:

Roger Cohen on Ahmadinejad – Video Library – The New York Times

Making the case that Ahmadinejad has lost his mojo.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/bcvideo/1.0/iframe/embed.html?videoId=100000001064529&playerType=embed

Obama’s UN Speech on Palestinian Recognition – Developments

Off and running at the UN General Assembly…the issue of Palestinian recognition is front and center.

Less than an hour after Mr. Obama spoke, President Nicolas Sarkozy of France stood at the same podium in a sharp repudiation, calling for a General Assembly resolution that would upgrade the Palestinians to “observer status,” as a bridge towards statehood. “Let us cease our endless debates on the parameters,” Mr. Sarkozy said. “Let us begin negotiations and adopt a precise timetable.” For Mr. Obama, the challenge in crafting the much-anticipated General Assembly speech on Wednesday was how to address the incongruities of the administration’s position: the president who committed himself to making peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians a priority from Day One, who still has not been able to even get peace negotiations going after two and a half years; the president who opened the door to Palestinian state membership at the United Nations last year ending up threatening to veto that very membership; the president who was determined to get on the right side of Arab history ending up, in the views of many on the Arab street, on the wrong side of it on the Palestinian issue.

via Obama, at U.N., Explains Rationale for Opposing Palestinian Statehood Bid – NYTimes.com.

Three main streams appear to be emerging in response to this speech, as noted by Uri Friedman in the Atlantic:

1. Obama’s inability to explain the US’s inconsistent foreign policy
2. Obama was speaking to US voters more than UN delegates
3. The President’s Star Power is Fading

But as of today, the Palestinians don’t have the necessary votes required in the SC:

The Palestinians have said at least eight of the council’s members — Russia, China, Gabon, Nigeria, South Africa, Brazil, Lebanon and India — will back them. The U.S. veto pledge notwithstanding, that still leaves the Palestinians one vote short of the nine needed for membership.

via Palestinians Give UN Time Amid Pressure to Drop State Bid – Bloomberg.

For a more nuanced analysis of Obama’s speech–with an eye towards history and a sense of the rhetorical impulse behind it–Stewart Patrick, one of the most important current observers of international organization writes this for CNN:

But the most striking aspect of Obama’s speech was less such particulars than its ethical and moral tone. In the president’s mind, world peace depends on the global advance of liberty, equality and justice. And “though there is no straight line to progress, no single path to success”, he left no doubt that, in his mind, the world is on the right track.

The President closed by recalling what Harry Truman had said when the cornerstone of the UN’s headquarters was being put in place: “The United Nations is essentially an expression of the moral nature of man’s aspirations.” While one may admire Truman’s (and Obama’s) idealism, the intervening seven decades have shown just how hard it can be for the United Nations – or any other international body – to fashion moral results from humanity’s crooked timber.

via Evaluating Obama’s UN speech – Global Public Square – CNN.com Blogs.

 

UPDATE:  Jeffery Goldberg from the Atlantic on how Netanyahu got played.

Expectations: The Palestinian Strategy at the UN

What do the Palestinians hope to obtain this coming week at the UN? Daniel Levy of the New American Foundation notes:

Even at this late stage it is unclear exactly which U.N. option, if any, the Palestinian Liberation Organization (for it is the PLO that is still the diplomatic-political address for the Palestinians) will pursue. That should not be such a surprise — opacity is part of any negotiation and last minute decisions are the bread and butter of international diplomacy, in this case compounded by the uncertainty and absence of a clear strategy on the part of the Palestinian leadership. Their U.N. options basically fall into three baskets: do nothing, go for membership at the Security Council, or go for an upgrade at the General Assembly.

via A Palestinian Autumn in New York — What to Expect at the U.N. | NewAmerica.net.

And Robert Danin goes a step further, acknowledging that the Palestinians will gain something–but at what cost and what does this do for the diplomatic process?

Ironically, this effort, if successful, could achieve the very position Palestine could have attained long ago at a much lower price. Phase II of the 2003 Quartet Roadmap for Peace offered the option of creating “an independent Palestinian state with provisional borders” as a stepping stone to a negotiated permanent final-status agreement. The Palestinian leadership long rejected this option, fearing that that establishing a state prior to resolving all outstanding final status issues with Israel would leave them unresolved in perpetuity. Now they have effectively reversed course, hoping for just such an outcome. Only now, the Palestinians are pursuing this goal outside of any international diplomatic effort, rather than within one.

via The UN Vote and Palestinian Statehood | Foreign Affairs.

Keep in mind what a vote in the GA means (and what it doesn’t):

The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) is not a legislature. If it passes a resolution, then this does not necessarily change anything in international law or international affairs. This doesn’t mean that its votes are always inconsequential (although many are). The UNGA is the only place where all states formally and publicly state their positions on controversial issues. This can influence other processes, especially if the resolution is supported by many states and the most powerful ones. For example, the UNGA does not have the formal authority to designate statehood. Nevertheless, if a vast majority of states, including most of the powerful ones, vote in favor of a resolution that recognizes Palestine as a state, then other entities are more likely to be persuaded by the claim of statehood than if the resolution would squeak by with a bare majority.

All of this is a long-winded way of saying that it really matters not just whether a UN resolution on Palestinian statehood will pass but how many and which states will vote in favor of it.

via The Palestine Vote: Who Will Vote How? — The Monkey Cage.

David Rothkopf, ever the realist, doesn’t see the strategy as working:

Over the weekend a keen, very experienced observer of the region who has what would be generally viewed as a pronounced a pro-Palestinian tilt to his views called Abbas, “hopelessly incompetent, corrupt and obsessed primarily with where his next dollar is coming from.” As I noted, this was a supporter. He was struggling with why Abbas might seek to take his statehood resolution to the U.N. Security Council where it will certainly be vetoed rather than bring it to the U.N. General Assembly where he is equal assured of a resounding victory when the votes are tallied. Yes, the latter path grants only observer status, but the former grants nothing at all except the chance to give a few more indignant speeches.

My friend speculated on a few reasons. Foolishness was one. A second, not much more charitable, was that he wanted center stage, a last hurrah, that might propel him into his post-political life well. If it did and that also helped the overall cause by getting some supporters on the record and highlighting divisions among the great powers, all the better.  It also might be that he recognizes that actually winning in the General Assembly might then shift the focus to the hollowness of his victory if it comes, as it will, for a nation without borders its most nearest neighbor will agree upon?

via David Rothkopf | FOREIGN POLICY.

IntLawGrrls: Great Expectations

Earlier discussions of the upcoming UN vote on a Palestinian State involve strategic voting consideration. But according to IntLawGrrls, “The legal consequences of Palestinian statehood might not be as earth-shattering as might be expected.”  Follow the link for a thorough analysis.

Andrew Sullivan reviews a number of arguments and concludes that killing the “strategy” of Palestinian Statehood is a step backward in light of the Arab Spring–and contrary to what the US should be doing.

 

Susan Rice defends the U.N. on Colbert Report – By Colum Lynch | Turtle Bay

If you weren’t intereted in the upcoming fall General Assembly session, perhaps the US Ambassador and Stephen Colbert can help.

Susan E. Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, presented millions of Americans with a preview of Septembers upcoming U.N. General Assembly debate, the annual gathering in New York of world leaders — some nice, some not quite so nice.”Sometimes it feels a little bit like the Star Wars bar scene, where some of the most colorful dictators of the world will come together and give their speeches,” she said. There will be no black helicopters fouling the Manhattan skyline, she assured.

via Susan Rice defends the U.N. on Colbert Report – By Colum Lynch | Turtle Bay.

http://media.mtvnservices.com/mgid:cms:item:comedycentral.com:394652

YouTube: Behind the Scenes with the Secretary General

Compelling short video on an extraordinary day in the life of Ban Ki Moon, UN Secretary General–during the opening week of the UN General Assembly.

MDG Wrap-Up

What are some of the best analyses of the General Assembly and MDGs?  Tip o’ the had to One.org for a few perspectives:

• At-risk states say that development goals aren’t listening to them, via Guardian UK.
• Follow the leader…namely China, via Global Times
• Bono’s criticism of the goals rang hollow as judged by his recent Op-Ed calls for transparency and accountability
• Celebrities distract, culture and issues of measurement are some explanations of MDG failure, and, in the end, they are “fundamentally humanitarian and not instrumental to economic development”, via WSJ
• And don’t miss Christy Turlington’s MDG Diary for some celebrity musing and a sense of what its like to wander around at the actual event:

Today I was finally able to venture over to the Clinton Global Initiative (an idea founded in order to turn ideas into actions to “help our world move beyond the current state of globalization to a more integrated global community of shared benefits, responsibilities, and values”) for the last day of workshops and sessions at the conference.

via Christy Turlington Burns MDG 2010 | ONE.