Dag
Hammarskjöld Centenary Lectures
and Conversations Series
Peacekeeping and Conflict Resolution : Then and Now
This conversation is available as a webcast (Duration: 1h 9min) (Note: free RealPlayer is needed to view webcasts.)
Dag Hammarskjöld met his death on 18 September 1961 in a plane accident while on a peace mission in the Congo. The third event in the Lectures and Conversations Series will be devoted to peacekeeping and conflict resolution, areas in which Dag Hammarskjöld made a significant contribution.
The event will take place
on Wednesday, 5 October
2005 at UN Headquarters
in the Dag Hammarskjöld
Library Auditorium, from
1:15 p.m. to 2:15 p.m.
Under-Secretary-General
Shashi Tharoor will interview
Under-Secretary-General
Lakhdar Brahimi, Special
Adviser to the Secretary-General,
and Jane Holl Lute, Assistant
Secretary-General for Peacekeeping
Operations in the Office
of Mission Support, Department
of Peacekeeping Operations,
on past and present developments
in peacekeeping and conflict
resolution.
During Dag Hammarskjöld's first term in office, the phrases "conference
diplomacy" and "quiet diplomacy" appeared for the first time in 1954 in the official documentation
of the Organization (A/2911) [ Chinese | French | Russian | Spanish ]. His hope was that progress could be made within the
United Nations to develop "new forms of contact, new methods of deliberation, and new techniques for reconciliation thus adding to the strength and prestige of the Organization as well as drawing strength and prestige from it”.
In the words of Dag Hammarskjöld...
"Only in true surrender to the interest of all can we reach that strength and independence, that unity of purpose, that equity of judgment which are necessary if we are to measure up to our duty to the future, as men of a generation to whom the chance was given to build in time a world of peace." (UN Press Release SG/360, December 22, 1953).
"The tensions of our time are too severe to permit us to neglect these resources and should impel us to use the United Nations in such a manner as to widen the possibilities for constructive negotiation." (Annual report of the Secretary-General on the work of the organization, 16 June 1955 - 15 June 1956).
"We need the Organization... for the negotiating possibilities it opens up. We need it as an executive organ. We need it for the constructive additions it offers in international attempts to resolve conflicts of interest. And we need it as a foundation and a framework for... the prevention of future conflicts." (Excerpt from: Do We Need the United Nations? - Speech made in Copenhagen, 2 May 1959).
"This leads me back to the international situation and to the role of the United Nations... It would be too dramatic to talk about our task as one of waging a war for peace, but it is quite realistic to look at it as an essential and - within its limits - effective work for building dams against the floods of disintegration and violence." ( Excerpt from Dag Hammarskjöld's last address to staff on Staff Day 8 Sept. 1961).
