There’s a lot of talk about early warning as a key element for preventing conflict. I don’t think early warning is such a problem – today, when news is a 24-hour phenomenon, it’s fairly easy to identify where there might be problems that require UN attention. What’s challenging is to translate that early warning into early action – how to convince local authorities that it would be useful, perhaps to have some outside mediation support, good offices, perhaps an envoy. Any Member State likes to be able to resolve its own political issues, and the vast majority of times globally that is what happens. So at what point does a Member State ask for some quiet, appropriate help from the UN or others? How do we get in to offer that support in an appropriate way? That’s our real challenge. Under-Secretary-General Jeffrey Feltman
Posted on: Fri, 29 Aug 2014 13:41:54 +0000
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