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Sam Daws - A United Nations fit for purpose? The challenges facing the UN as it turns 70

  • The Queen's College High Street Oxford, OX1 4AW United Kingdom (map)

Sam Daws has held a wide variety of UN-related roles over the last three decades, beginning his working life as Programme Assistant to the Quaker UN Office in Geneva in 1989. From 2000 to 2003 he served as First Officer to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. He went on to spend six years as Executive Director of UNA-UK, and then became the UK Representative to the UN Foundation. From 2011 to 2013 he was seconded to the British Government, first as Senior Principal Research Analyst in the Multilateral Policy Directorate of the Foreign Office, and then as Deputy Director (United Nations) in the Cabinet Office, with responsibly for supporting the Prime Minister’s role as Co-Chair of the UN High-Level Panel on the Post-2015 Development Agenda.

Mr Daws currently directs a project on UN Governance and Reform at Oxford. He has co-authored six books on the UN, including The Oxford Handbook on the United Nations. Mr Daws has degrees in Social Anthropology and International Conflict Analysis and was a research student in International Relations at New College, Oxford, before joining the UN Secretary-General’s Office. He spent time as a Visiting Fellow at Cambridge University in international law, at Yale in UN Studies, and has studied philanthropy and social investment at CASS Business School.

He will be addressing IR Soc in the Shulman Auditorium in the Queen's College, on Thursday 12th November at 7:30pm, discussing the challenges facing the UN as it turns 70.

Entry to the event is FREE for IR Soc members and £2 for non members; membership may be bought on the door. It will be followed by a drinks reception.