Activities

Events

Geneva and the Future of Multilateralism

The creation of the League of Nations in 1919 marked both the beginning of modern multilateralism and the rise of international Geneva. 100 years later, around 40 international organisations, the permanent missions of 179 countries and hundreds of NGOs are working together from Geneva to build a safer, more just and prosperous world. In an increasingly interdependent world, international cooperation is ever more necessary. Only multilateral responses will make it possible to address the global challenges our societies are facing. Who are the actors and what are the current and future decision-making processes? What is Geneva's role in this evolving context? This is the topic of the debate organised at the University of Geneva in partnership with the federal, cantonal and municipal authorities, the United Nations Office at Geneva and the Fondation pour Genève. The event marks a day of celebration of the centenary of multilateralism in Geneva, during which the Confederation, the Canton and the City of Geneva will renew their commitment to international Geneva by signing a joint declaration.Debate in Presence of Ignazio Cassis, Head of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, and  Tatiana Valovaya, Director-general of the United Nations Office at Geneva.Presentation by Sacha Zala, director of the Research Centre Dodis and co-editor of the publication «Switzerland and the construction of Multilateralism» (www.dodis.ch/q14). For further information.
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International Conference on Global Diplomacy

The conference «Global Diplomacy – A Post-Institutional Approach» focused on new and interdisciplinary perspectives of diplomatic research. It has brought together historians as well as researchers from the social sciences and related disciplines with an interest in the history of diplomacy, transnational law, and global governance. A main objective of the conference was to challenge the former Eurocentric diplomatic history in favor of a global history of diplomacy that takes into account border-crossing entanglements and transnational networks.The conference consisted of four panels, two roundtable discussions and a digital humanities session with the presentation of the database «Swiss-Diplo» (see conference program). The participants of the event were affiliated with leading universities around the globe, e.g. Waseda University Tokyo, Columbia University, University of Oxford and the ANU Canberra. Furthermore, experts of Switzerland’s major research institutions were present at the conference.The conference was organized in the course of the research project «A Global History of Swiss Diplomacy», a cooperation between the Institute for European Global Studies of the University of Basel and the research center Diplomatic Documents of Switzerland (Dodis). The conference was supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) and the Freiwillige Akademische Gesellschaft (FAG) Basel. It took place on August 30–31, 2018, at the Institute for European Global Studies in Basel.@Europainstitut and @Dodis have been live-tweeting from the conference under the hashtag #globaldiplomacy.Further Information:Conference programConference website on www.swiss-diplo.ch/conference
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