Professor Yuji Suzuki, Director-General of the Federation and Ms. Chiharu Kawakami, Director for Administration, presided over the meeting attended by more than 200 delegates from all over Japan. (Photo: ING進学教室)
Sixty Member States recognized the need to address complex contemporary challenges but differed on the priority among measures to achieve international peace and security.
Japanese Ambassador Koro Bessho urged that complex contemporary challenges to international peace and security should be dealt with in a holistic and methodological manner to better address the situation on the ground and presented four ideas which included reform of the UN Security Council.
Former Under-Secretary-General for UN Department for Peacekeeping Operations Jean-Marie Guéhenno finds conflicts multilayers and “never dying” reflecting the erosion of international norms and a widening political divide.
U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres met with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and spoke to students at Sophia University about the increasing relevance of the human security concept in dealing with vexing challenges particularly the nuclear threat, mass movement of people, climate change, and increased inequality.
Japanese Ambassador Toshiya Hoshino suggested the need to create a consensus to build up a solid basis upon which the Secretary-General can bring forward detailed UN reform proposals in May 2018.
Takazawa’s of the Hiroshima Peacebuilders Center found that, while many scholars had argued “R2P’s setback” after the Libya incident of 2011, their views mostly formed by a partial perspective focusing on “forcible measures” under “Pillar Three (timely and decisive response)” of the R2P.
Former SRSG Yasushi Akashi recalled his determination to saw “the strong seeds of democracy, then let people of Cambodia grow it,” while Ambassador Yoshifumi Okamura pointed out the cases where the reality in the field of peacekeeping is not reflected in the considerations at the Security Council.
Higashi identified challenges caused by POC, Hisamura presented field perspective, Takazawa theorized the crossroads between Protection of Civilians (POC) mandates and R2P, and Tsuyada explained MOFA`s assistance in capacity building of peacekeeping personnel, while Miwa revealed the dilemma in mandate formulation and implementation.
Graduate students who participated in the annual meeting of the Global Peacebuilding of Japan found the presentation made by Professor Takayuki Mizuno of Kanda University of International Relations best in terms of its content and clarity of presentation.