Noted historian to discuss reform of United Nations

COLUMBUS - Reform of the United Nations will be the topic of a lecture by the former secretariat to the international commission studying the future of the organization on Thursday, April 12, at 4 p.m. at the Wexner Center Film/Video Theater, 1871 N. High St.

Paul Kennedy, J. Richardson Dilworth professor of history and director of international security studies at Yale University, will speak on “Reforming the United Nations: Mission Impossible?”

As former secretariat to the International Commission on the Long-Term Future of the United Nations, Kennedy helped draft the report “The United Nations in its Second Half-Century” for the organization’s 50th anniversary.

Internationally known for his writings and commentaries on global political, economic and strategic issues, Kennedy is author and editor of 19 books. His best-known work is The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers, which provoked an immense debate upon its appearance in 1988 and has since been translated into more than 20 languages.

Most recently, Kennedy is author of The Parliament of Man: The Past, Present, and Future of the United Nations.  He will sign copies of this book at the Wexner Center after the lecture.

The event is sponsored by the Mershon Center for International Security Studies, which fosters interdisciplinary research on national security in a global context.

About the Mershon Center for International Security Studies
The Mershon Center for International Security Studies advances the understanding of national security in a global context by fostering interdisciplinary faculty and student research in three areas of focus: the use of force and diplomacy; the ideas, identities, and decisional processes that affect security; and the institutions that manage violent conflict. The Mershon Center is a unit of the Office of International Affairs at The Ohio State University.