Kahane Report | 2017-2018

WILLIAM AND ELIZABETH KAHANE UNITED NATIONS PROGRAM AT OCCIDENTAL COLLEGE Report of Academic Year 2017-2018

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The William and Elizabeth Kahane United Nations Program at Occidental College is the training ground for some of Occidental’s most successful graduates. Because of the Kahane United Nations Program Endowment and the Kahane Scholars Endowment, our most promising students, regardless of their financial circumstances, have the ability to participate in the singular opportunities and experiences that encompass the Kahane UN Program.

This report provides information on our efforts to expand the reach and impact of the Kahane UN Program, both in New York and on campus (the slate of UN Week events and programs that were organized this last February), and in connection to this past year’s cohort of students. As we fulfill our ambition to be a leader among liberal arts colleges in the study and practice of global affairs, we remain grateful for the two Kahane Endowments. The resources they provide sustain essential programming and partnerships, in addition to the hard work, scholarship and wide-ranging efforts of our students, Director Doug Gardner and faculty members, as they seek to further connect Oxy to the world.

Your transformative support has been paramount as we strive to prepare our students to become leaders, thinkers and change-makers who will make a significant impact upon our local and global communities. Thank you for providing access to such critical learning opportunities.

In a time when the value and legitimacy of the UN has come under question within the context of national and international crises, the skills and knowledge our students are able to acquire through the program’s experience-based approach continue to confirm the tremendous value of this international order and its ability to be an impetus for change.

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WILLIAM AND ELIZABETH KAHANE UNITED NATIONS PROGRAM AT OCCIDENTAL COLLEGE

TABLE OF CONTENTS Year in Review by Doug Gardner

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Remarks From Ambassador Shearer

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YEAR IN REVIEW BY DOUG GARDNER Faculty Director of the William and Elizabeth Kahane United Nations Program at Occidental College

The Kahane United Nations Program remains a flagship component of the College and a highly prized and competitive opportunity for students. Thanks to the support of the Kahane Endowment, it continues to evolve in significant and positive directions each year.

Fall 2017 Semester Highlights: The core elements of Oxy’s Kahane UN Program remain strong, with some new, special features of note in 2017: The addition of the one-week field visit to Costa Rica (during November 2017) has been an important growth element of the program. It provided an opportunity for students to get a firsthand view of how the UN works at the field level and to undertake practical field-based research for UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) Costa Rica.

An October reception in New York was a step forward in a conscientious effort among campus offices and the New York program to reinforce the bond among all 455 alums of the Kahane UN Program at Occidental throughout its 32-year history.

All 17 participants in 2017 successfully completed demanding internships in the UN system as well as a rigorous academic program. In the diverse 2017 cohort, there were 14 women and three men, and six students of color. (Note: the usual number of students in the program is 18, but one student chose to withdraw for personal reasons at the start of the semester.)

The annual two-day Washington, D.C. visit in early November remains a highly valued part of the program.

Students consider with various interlocutors in government and several think tanks how the U.S. leverages the UN to advance U.S. foreign policy. Students also had the chance to network seriously with professionals in D.C. regarding next steps and future career opportunities.

In 2017, there were three program assistants. PAs are full-time participants in the program who also carry additional responsibilities for communication, administration and social activities. The three PAs in 2017 were particularly strong, which was important for the overall bonding and cohesiveness of the group.

They also dealt effectively with any issues related to the health, well-being and other personal concerns of students.

When this cohort returned to campus in spring 2018, they were enthusiastic participants in Oxy’s UN Week in February. They talked about the range of their experiences as well as their work and responsibilities at the UN. The active sharing of their accumulated UN wisdom with fellow students stokes the interest of possible future applicants and enhances a smooth baton pass to the next generation of Oxy participants in the program.

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WILLIAM AND ELIZABETH KAHANE UNITED NATIONS PROGRAM AT OCCIDENTAL COLLEGE

Internships The internships remain a central pillar of the program, and they provide Oxy students with a unique opportunity for experiential learning as they contribute to the work of the UN system. The fall of 2017 was a transitional time at the UN with a new secretary general, António Guterres. Offsetting the optimism that accompanied the arrival of the new UN leader were the steps of the new U.S. administration that cast a pall on the UN’s financial resources, earlier UN agreements (involving climate change, migration, Iran’s nuclear weapons) and multilateralism in general. The impact of the changes at the leadership level in the UN and in Washington, D.C. were monitored in both students’ internships and classes.

While there were two new internships in 2017, at UNICEF’s Communications for Development Team and at UNRWA (the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East), there were three locations where prior internships were not continued. The UN SDG (Sustainable Development Goals) Action Campaign did not have the financial resources to continue the professional who was our internship mentor, so that location was not pursued. Also, the UN’s Global Compact transfered their internship hiring practice to the UN’s central human resources office, so that internship was dropped since that would conflict with the master’s degree requirement for the intern. In addition, UNICEF’s policy team shifted their administrative handling of interns, so that the 2016 location was not continued. In summary, there will always be some fluidity in the internship assignments due to shifts in financial resources, human resource processes and internship managers. As a result, in 2017, although there were several locations that were not continued, two new ones were added, plus a fourth intern was placed at the UK Mission.

The feedback from all 17 students from the 2017 semester indicated that each had a meaningful internship. Additionally, a rewarding indicator of students’ contributions is the near unanimous praise and deep satisfaction expressed by the supervisors at each internship location. A proud moment for Oxy was Kasi Whitaker ’18 being listed as the first author on a piece published by the British Medical Journal on noncommunicable diseases. She interned with UNDP’s HIV and health policy team.

UK MISSION 4 interns COSTA RICA MISSION 2 interns GUATEMALA MISSION 1 intern RWANDA MISSION 2 interns

UNICEF

UNFPA

(UNITED NATIONS CHILDREN’S FUND)

(UNITED NATIONS POPULATION FUND)

1 intern

1 intern

UNDP 2 interns

UN FOUNDATION 1 intern

UNHCR

(THE OFFICE OF THE UNITED NATIONS HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR REFUGEES)

1 intern

UNITAR

(UNITED NATIONS INSTITUTE FOR TRAINING AND RESEARCH)

1 intern UNRWA 1 intern

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The Academic Component The internships and the lunchtime classes led by professors Fomerand and Gardner are closely intertwined and designed to be mutually reinforcing. As in years past, there were two classes, one in conflict prevention and the other a practical task force in human development. Students also participated in a seminar entitled the UN Experience. The seminar is designed to help students process their internships and to hear from, and interact with, notable guest speakers.

The UN Experience: The dialogue in this year’s seminar had a common focus throughout the semester on leaders and leadership in the UN. This again proved to be a useful focus that brought together scholarly research, the internship experiences and other academic classes. The guest speakers in 2017 were thought leaders in their fields and complemented tremendously the internships, readings and input from professors. Speakers were chosen from various UN agencies and NGOs, and covered important topics of the day.

Conflict Prevention: The overall purpose of this course is to examine the opportunities as well as constraints upon the UN’s collective capacity to prevent deadly conflict and, in so doing, to help students develop a conceptual and practical understanding of conflict prevention and resolution as a process and an institutional form. Frequent use was made during the semester of the innovative “flipping methodology,” where students became the ones to introduce course readings. During the semester, there were also briefings by engaged practitioners from governmental and international organizations and civil society.

Human Development: The task force methodology has become the main learning pillar within the Human Development class after the successful experiences over the last three years. The “client” for 2017 was UNDP Costa Rica, which allowed this course and the field trip to Costa Rica to be closely connected.

The issue that UNDP Costa Rica sought support on related to important and sensitive problems in the growth and export of pineapples.

Field Visit to Costa Rica (Nov. 18-25, 2017) With financial support from the Kahane Endowment, and following approvals from campus offices, a oneweek visit to Costa Rica was planned with the UN in Costa Rica, with support from a local service provider for logistics and lodging. Costa Rica was selected as the optimal field destination to see the UN in action due to its accessibility, safe environment, interesting development issues and the active support of the UN in Costa Rica.

After arrival in San Jose, the first 24 hours were spent getting settled, together with a security briefing, a session with a Costa Rican historian, a meeting and a meal with a well-known NGO activist and an evening yoga class. The full program began on Monday morning with meetings with UN agencies during the first half of the day and with government representatives in the afternoon. The remainder of the trip was spent at the field level observing UN work in sustainable agriculture (UNDP), child-friendly municipalities (UNICEF) and protected areas (UNESCO), and learning about income generation/women’s cooperatives (UNDP). Travel in country was by road on a chartered bus. The schedule was full with meetings in the capital, site visitations, community conversations and travel.

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WILLIAM AND ELIZABETH KAHANE UNITED NATIONS PROGRAM AT OCCIDENTAL COLLEGE

Key Takeaways from the Visit: It was instructional for students to see the relationship of the UN system and the government by focusing on the nature of their interactions and the common substantive elements between them, particularly the implementation of the SDGs. The day-to-day trials and tribulations of the UN resident coordinator in Costa Rica also brought to life the reality of a UN professional’s work at the field level. Her challenges in bringing together and coordinating over 12 UN agencies were apparent—though she showed an authenticity and perseverance that gently impressed the students.

The task force research on key externalities of the growth and export of pineapples that was done in New York prior to the trip dovetailed nicely with numerous elements of the field visit. Students got a firsthand perspective on the entirety of the pineapple cycle, from planting to harvesting/export, with a glimpse at possibilities for doing this in an environmentally friendly fashion, i.e. organic farming vs. cheaper conventional modalities. The field visits grounded the findings and recommendations of the task forces and enriched their understanding of the governance systems surrounding a valued commodity, with power wielded by wealthy plantation owners who are often politicians as well. The “small persons” affected by pineapple growing via water pollution (and its deleterious impact on the health of women and children) and the loss of forests/biodiversity was also an important focus of the field visit. The voices of these citizens and their ability to realize change in the face of powerful forces was an imperative element of the visit and the subsequent task force reports when back in New York.

The Oxy task forces provided oral and written reports in December 2017 that were highly valued by UNDP Costa Rica. The beauty of the task force methodology is that it is a “win-win” situation, i.e., in addition to the satisfaction of the clients who are receiving valuable input, the learning of the students is profound and unique since it is outside of the traditional academic setting and grounded in their field visit to Costa Rica.

The overall feedback from students was that the Costa Rica trip was a hugely valuable learning experience at many levels. It will thus be continued in 2018, building on the lessons from the inaugural year. There were important substantive and logistical suggestions from participants that will, however, be incorporated into the 2018 visit to Costa Rica.

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Fall 2018 After 32 years of experience, there is a solid base and established traditions to build on, with the Kahane UN Program Endowment providing welcome financial support. The subject matter and issues at the UN are shifting every fall, so the ongoing challenge for the Kahane UN Program is to stay connected with cutting-edge trends and to seize opportunities as they arise.

Directional Elements for Fall 2018: Use of the director’s discretionary funds from the Kahane UN Program Endowment will be largely used again for the Costa Rica trip in 2018. The envisioned gender focus of the Costa Rica task forces will be connected to the theme of the on-campus UN Week in 2019 and to the growth of the gender, women and sexuality studies minor at Oxy. In light of the increasing focus on gender equality and women’s empowerment both in the UN program and on campus, a new internship has been established in fall 2018 with UNDP’s gender team.

The antagonistic approach of the present U.S. administration to multilateralism in general and toward a handful of UN agencies in particular will impact UN budgets, the substantive directions of these organizations and lives of people around the planet. This will be carefully monitored throughout the semester and will be very much a part of the internships and our class discussions and visit to Washington, D.C. In cooperation with various offices on campus, an effort will be made to clean up the database on UN alumni to ensure professional contacts are accurate. This will, in turn, support efforts to establish a highquality online system that will be accessible to all Kahane UN Program alumni.

In closing, the director acknowledges with thanks his fellow professor, Jacques Fomerand, for his excellent partnership in this collective endeavor. Likewise, the dedicated support from numerous colleagues on campus is an essential ingredient in the success of this whole undertaking which provides such a tremendous learning opportunity for Oxy students participating in the William and Elizabeth Kahane United Nations Program. Thank you, and we look forward to this upcoming cohort of 18 students for the fall semester and to the impressive work they will no doubt be able to achieve.

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WILLIAM AND ELIZABETH KAHANE UNITED NATIONS PROGRAM AT OCCIDENTAL COLLEGE

SUMMARY REMARKS FROM AMBASSADOR DEREK SHEARER Kahane UN Program at Occidental College Committee Co-Chair

Occidental continues to become more globalized and interconnected with the generous support of William and Elizabeth Kahane and the Kahane United Nations Program at Occidental College. This last year, the Kahane UN Program offered students an intellectual depth and global perspective with a series of speakers and events. Students were able to learn from local consul generals about international diplomacy, a documentary filmmaker who challenged our views on world issues, athletes who use sports as a means for diplomacy, founders of impactful organizations concerning international development, and renowned authors and educators on cutting-edge global affairs. Moreover, with a UN Week featuring the theme of Global Cities, students were able to engage with leading experts from major cities around the world on how to mobilize cities (including Los Angeles) toward achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). We also had a student-hosted event on transitional justice in Colombia and civil society engagement.

These and other activities have strengthened Occidental College’s global reputation in international relations. The Kahane UN Program not only benefits the students interning at the UN in New York, but the Oxy community as a whole in broadening its thinking about the challenges facing the world and how interconnected we really are to one another.

SUMMARY OF ACTIVITIES U.N. Week: The United Nations’ SDGs and Global Cities This year, UN Week focused on the importance of the Sustainable Development Goals, particularly SDG 11, “Sustainable Cities and Communities.” This corresponded with our college-wide focus on the Global and the Urban as pillars of Occidental’s distinct approach to the liberal arts. This direct connection helps account for a UN Week that engaged with all parts of the College in an unprecedented manner. Beyond the remarkable attendance at UN Week, this connection also brought continuing opportunities seized upon by our students to work with the city of Los Angeles in the context of the UN-defined SDGs. UN Week was co-organized with the John Parke Young Initiative and the Diplomacy and World Affairs Majors (DWAMA) student group. In addition, our academic keynote speaker—Saskia Sassen—was suggested to us by the Cultural Studies Program (CSP) Working Group. This enabled our UN Week’s academic keynote speaker to not only talk to an overflow audience in Choi Auditorium, but also to double as a CSP keynote in which Sassen spoke to all first year students in a group lecture as part of their CSP seminars. Overall attendance at Sassen’s talks totaled roughly 650 students and faculty; this unprecedented impact speaks to a planning process that was inclusive of students, the DWA department and the broader faculty.

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UN Week, thus, was both ambitious and momentous. It began with a keynote to a packed Choi Auditorium (roughly 200 people) from Los Angeles Mayor and former DWA professor Eric Garcetti. Garcetti’s remarkable keynote speech emphasized the distinctive approach of Occidental’s DWA department in relation to both his own approach to international relations as well as his engagement and partnership with Occidental on integrating the SDGs into L.A. city policy-making (see below). Garcetti’s speech can be found at youtube.com/watch?v=Je_wx-PUgtI&t=1493s.

Garcetti’s keynote was followed by a distinguished panel featuring representatives from major global cities working with the Sustainable Development Goals, as follows: • Bogotá (Maria Conde, Vice President of International Chamber of Commerce); • Los Angeles (Nina Hachigian, Deputy Mayor for International Affairs); • Mexico City (Carlos Cisneros, Executive Director of Institutional Strengthening and Internal Management); • Mumbai (Nidhi Choudhari, Deputy Municipal Commissioner); • Nairobi (Philip Thigo, Senior Advisor of the Deputy President in Kenya) • New York City (Alexandra Hinicker, Strategic Relationship Manager); • San Jose (Kerrie Romanow, Director of Environmental Services Department and Chief Sustainability Officer); It is highly unusual to have such a diverse and globally representative set of speakers, so this was a particularly unique opportunity for our community. The session was chaired by Ambassador Derek Shearer, with speakers addressing commonalities and distinctions on issues facing global cities and how they connect to the SDGs. Mayor Garcetti’s speech was a result of Ambassador Shearer’s and Professor Sanjeev Khagram’s meetings with Deputy Mayor Hachigian. This has further resulted in what will be an ongoing cooperative project on Los Angeles and the SDGs between the city and Occidental’s DWA department. The department now provides support to the city for how to best integrate the SDGs into city policies, with students taking the lead through task forces led by DWA professors. The Kahane UN Program was initiated, in part, with the promise to “Bring the UN to Los Angeles”; we could not imagine then how real we would make that promise in such a short time.

UN Week was, however, more than just about Mayor Garcetti, representatives from around the globe and working with the city of Los Angeles on the SDGs. Students had the exceptional opportunity to engage with and learn from a number of renowned speakers and experts; most prominently, as noted above, from our academic keynote speaker, Saskia Sassen, the Robert S. Lynd Professor of Sociology at Columbia University and the world’s most renowned expert on global cities, having both coined the term and pioneered it as a field of study. In the context of this groundbreaking work, Sassen’s efforts run parallel to other themes that are of keen college-wide interest, from immigration and states in the world economy to inequality, gendering and digitization.

The connection of Sassen to Oxy’s Global and Urban pillars, to our first-year CSP theme and to the SDGs, accounts for her talks being heard by roughly 650 members of the Oxy community, a testament to the deep connection of UN Week to the intellectual life of the College.

Our other UN speaker was United Nations Development Programme Director of Communications Mila Rosenthal, who spoke about the UN’s efforts around SDG 11. The week also highlighted the Power of Place, with a cross-disciplinary panel featuring professors Anthony Chase, Juve Cortes, Thalia González and Ainsley LeSure. This panel focused on how cities and places shape the intellectual interests of Oxy professors. The diversity of these faculty members was highlighted by their connections to locales as varied as Medellín, Colombia; Los Angeles; Alabama; and rural Mexico.

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WILLIAM AND ELIZABETH KAHANE UNITED NATIONS PROGRAM AT OCCIDENTAL COLLEGE

Other Speakers We also hosted a number of other distinguished guests and speakers this last year. Many were local diplomats inspiring students with their unique experience in international relations. In addition, we invited notable authors and documentarians to campus who were thought-provoking. They engaged students and pushed them to better understand the many challenges that exist in the world today.

These speakers shared their diverse knowledge and experience with students and the Oxy community throughout the year in a series of lunches and outstanding talks. They included: • Carlos Eugenio García de Alba Zepeda, Consul General of Mexico • Hans Jorg Neumann, Consul General of Germany • Chelsey Martin, Consul General of Australia • Stefan Lindström, Consul General of Finland • Akira Chiba, Consul General of Japan • John Emerson, Former U.S. Ambassador to Germany • David Barkan, Founder of Ultimate Peace • Neftalie Williams, Professor, USC Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism • Yuriko Romer, Documentary Filmmaker • Nick Cull, Professor of Public Diplomacy, USC • Richard Walden, President and CEO of Operation USA • Philip Seib, Professor of International Relations, USC • Peter Edelman, Professor of Law and Public Policy, Georgetown

Student-Hosted Event Additionally, DWA students organized a talk by Colombian political scientist Eliana Jimeno, who spoke about the history of, and challenges facing, transitional justice at the end of Colombia’s 50-year conflict.

Students were also able to engage in discussion on the country’s current conflict as well as the challenges ahead.

UN Week, in short, brought to Oxy the impact of the UN, the SDGs and the globe writ large. We are particularly pleased that we were able to use the Kahane UN Program to enable cooperation with both the city of Los Angeles and the Cultural Studies Program. Our work with Los Angeles on the SDGs continues into 2018-2019 (and hopefully beyond). Similarly, CSP followed up on Professor Sassen’s Kahane-sponsored talks on global cities by choosing Global Cities/Local Realities as its 2018-2019 theme. On these two fronts, we can see the sort of deep, sustainable impact we hope, and anticipate, that the Kahane UN Program can continue to bring to Occidental.

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WILLIAM AND ELIZABETH KAHANE UNITED NATIONS PROGRAM AT OCCIDENTAL COLLEGE

We are deeply indebted for your support of the William and Elizabeth Kahane United Nations Program at Occidental College. Your generosity provides transformative, experiential learning opportunities for our students and the means for meaningful, practical student input and engagement with our partners at the UN, as well as resources for breakthrough activities on campus that explore the intersection of global and social change. The Kahane UN Program continues to be a flagship program for the College that each year attracts students interested in promoting human rights, individual and state security, foreign policy and international development on a global level — students who will become our next generation’s leaders. Thank you!

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WILLIAM AND ELIZABETH KAHANE UNITED NATIONS PROGRAM AT OCCIDENTAL COLLEGE