Dr. James M. Van Nostrand is an Author, Professor of Law, & Director of the Center for Energy and Sustainable Development at West Virginia University. His most recent book is: “THE COAL TRAP: How West Virginia Was Left Behind in the Clean Energy Revolution.” He highlights how political and business leaders have been unable to move beyond the “coal trap” of West Virginia’s heritage, and how it harmed the state’s citizens and dimmed their future prospects through the obstinate reliance on an unsustainable and outmoded resource: coal. The state experienced a “Lost Decade” because West Virginia leaders doubled down on fossil fuels and ignored the clean energy technology. In reality, there is not a “War on Coal” because market forces and consumer demand dictated the outcome. President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act provided assistance to West Virginia through tax credits and other energy-saving initiatives.

Dr. Thomas G. Weiss is a distinguished scholar of international relations and global governance with special expertise in the politics of the United Nations. Since 1998 he has been Presidential Professor at The Graduate Center, CUNY (The City University of New York), and is Director Emeritus of the Ralph Bunche Institute for International Studies. A recent book is “Would the World Be Better Without the UN?" Spoiler alert on page 190: even with its limitations the world is far better off with the UN to help deal with enormous problems such as climate change, diseases, human rights, refugees and human trafficking, as a few examples. Ukraine is a challenge that shows how the UN Security Council is partially paralyzed due to the Russian veto of major resolutions. Meanwhile, other UN agencies are on the ground in dangerous areas of Ukraine to help over 5-million refugees, provide food assistance, develop maternal and child health programs and keep nuclear reactors from melting down, just to mention a few. Also, UN agencies also help move aircraft, ships, mail and weather information worldwide.

Felix Dodds is an Adjunct Professor in Environmental Sciences and Engineering at the University of North Carolina. He is an Associate Fellow at the Tellus Institute in Boston, and he is the City of Bonn’s International Ambassador. He co-authored his recent book: “ENVIRONMENTAL HEROES IN DIPLOMACY: PROFILES IN COURAGE” which highlights several outstanding heroes in the environmental area. Following are the chapter titles: a) Luc Hoffmann, Geoffrey Matthews & Eskandar Firouz: Escaping a Cold War Quagmire: The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands; b) Sidney Holt: The Long-Haul Hero Who Saved the Great Whales: The International Whaling Commission; c) Mostafa Tolba: The Egyptian King: The Montreal Protocol; d) Franz Perrez: Putting the ‘Basel’ Back into the Basel Convention; e) Raúl A. Estrada-Oyuela: Hero of Kyoto: The Kyoto Protocol; f) Barack Obama: The Missing Hero? The Copenhagen Climate Summit; g) Christiana Figueres: The Can-Do Advocate: The Paris Agreement on Climate Change; h) Maurice Strong – From Poverty to UN Under-Secretary General and Father of Sustainable Development – The Rio Earth Summit; i) Maria Luiza Viotti: A Believer in Multilateralism and the Power of Collective Ideas: The Rio+20 Conference; j) Paula Caballero: Building a Blueprint for a Better Future: The Sustainable Development Goals.

Ali Wyne is a senior analyst at Eurasia Group focusing on US-China relations and great-power competition. In his book, America's Great-Power Opportunity: Revitalizing U.S. Foreign Policy to Meet the Challenges of Strategic Competition, Ali offers the first detailed critique of great-power competition as a foreign policy framework. He posits that China and Russia are significantly more able and willing to challenge U.S. national interests and the prevailing order than they were at the end of the Cold War. He offers the following: The United States should not analogize today’s geopolitical environment too closely to the 1930s or the Cold War. China and Russia’s oft-touted reputations for strategic vision are overstated. Though China now occupies a more central position in the global economy than it did prior to the onset of the pandemic, its strategic prospects are more challenged. With its invasion of Ukraine, Russia has reenergized NATO, reinvigorated transatlantic ties, induced a significant recalibration of German foreign policy, made itself more beholden to China, and curtailed its access to capital markets and technological inputs. America’s core challenge—and opportunity—is to formulate a foreign policy that can endure no matter what steps China, Russia, or any other competitor takes.

Dr. Alynna J. Lyon is a Professor of Political Science at the University of New Hampshire and is Co-Editor and Chief of the journal Global Governance. She authored “US Politics and the United Nations: A Tale of Dysfunctional Dynamics.” Dr. Lyon traces the UN’s creation in 1945, dating from the League of Nations and President FDR’s effort to create an organization to prevent war, assist economic and social development and promote human rights. The US benefits more than any other country due to UN programs, such as peacekeeping, combating diseases, battling climate change, assisting in moving aircraft, ships, mail and weather information worldwide, to mention only a few. Most US presidents concluded that the UN was vital to provide an international forum to convene the countries of the world to deal with issues such as diseases, climate change, regional conflicts and a myriad of other contentious problems. The illegal US invasion of Iraq, failure to support key peacekeeping missions and withdrawal from the Iranian Nuclear Deal, the UN Human Rights Council and WHO were disastrous decisions that weakened America and strengthened adversaries such as China. The UN is essential, however, polls show the American public generally supports UN activities but does not understand the UN. The general public should develop objective news sources about the UN and avoid Right-Wing radio and other outlets, such as Fox, OAN and Newsmax that are allegedly biased or choose not to comprehend many of the UN programs.

Dr. Augusto Lopez-Claros, Executive Director of the Global Governance Forum, discusses his recent book, “Global Governance and the Emergence of Global Institutions for the 21st Century,” which proffers that the United Nations, which was created out of the ashes of World War 2, and other international organizations must make major structural changes to become more efficient, effective and relevant. Some suggestions include expanding the role of the UN General Assembly’s 193 member states to adopt binding resolutions concerning peace and security and developing a global parliament. He also suggests that existential threats such as income inequality, the Sixth Mass Extinction, nuclear arms proliferation and climate change crises must be seriously dealt with because these problems are accelerating quite rapidly and will cost trillions of dollars more to confront them the longer policymakers and the public do not take aggressive action.

Amir Dossal, President and CEO of the Global Partnerships Forum (GPF), previously served as Executive Director of the UN's Office for Partnerships. Mr. Dossal explains how the GPF works with the public and private sectors on a myriad of programs such as mentoring youth, empowering women, developing clean energy and confronting the Covid-19 challenges—primarily with the goal to help achieve the United Nations 17-Sustainable Development Goals. He is a founding Commissioner of the Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development and co-founder of the Blockchain Commission for Sustainable Development as well as several other substantive organizations such as the Coalition for Better Health at Lower Cost and the Pearl Initiative.

Sir Mark Lowcock, former United Nations Under‑Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, discusses the role of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and his new book Relief Chief: A Manifesto for Saving Lives in Dire Times.

As the “relief chief” his main responsibility was to coordinate the work of major humanitarian agencies, such as the International Red Cross, UNICEF and the UN Refugee Agency, to effectively streamline the delivery of humanitarian services to people affected by natural or human-made disasters, such as war in Ukraine or famine in the Horn of Africa. The major causes of disasters include climate change, wars, ethnic conflict, genocide, corruption and food insecurity. He focused on four major areas: invest in causes of a disaster and not deal with symptoms—populations should be helped to become more self-sufficient; many crises, such as a drought in the Horn of Africa or a hurricane in the Caribbean, are predictable and able to be anticipated and prepared for; need to work more diligently with certain groups that are most vulnerable, namely women and girls; most relief decisions are made by the donors and humanitarian agencies, but not the impacted populations that should have input into the decision-making process.

Robert Skinner, Deputy Director and Chief of Partnerships and Global Engagement

Outreach Division of the United Nations

Department of Global Communications (DGC), details how the DGC works to communicate with the world. A major communication theme revolves around the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), such as to eliminate poverty, promote food security, empower women and girls and combat climate change. For the SDGs to be successful, it is critical to partner with local governments, civil society, academia and the private sector. One particular initiative to involve youth is through a program called “Football (soccer) for the Goals.” Previously, Mr. Skinner headed up the UN Office for Partnerships, the United Nations Information Centre in Washington, D.C. and the United Nations Foundation’s New York Office.

Katrina vanden Heuvel, the publisher, part-owner, and former editor of the magazine The Nation is a political commentator on various TV programs, a guest columnist for the Washington Post and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. She emphasizes how President Franklin Delano Roosevelt helped found the UN out of the ashes of World War 2 and proffered the Four Freedoms (Freedoms of Speech and Worship and Freedoms from Want and Fear), which are arguably under siege by the former president, Donald Trump. Similar autocratic, anti-democratic insurgents are operating in Hungary, the Philippines, Brazil, Russia and several other countries. She highlights the major differences between the Trump (Unilateralist) and Biden (Multilateralist) foreign policies: it is in America’s interest to actively participate in UN agencies, such as the World Health Organization (WHO), United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and the Human Rights Council, as well as NATO and the EU. Although it was a strategic blunder by Donald Trump to withdraw from the Iranian Nuclear Deal, which actually was successful in blocking Iranian ambitions to develop a nuclear weapon, the Biden Administration has a responsibility to move more aggressively in reactivating the agreement. Other areas of importance are to maintain a strong military defense, reduce the bloated Defense Department budget and the disproportionate influence of the Military-Industrial Complex, provide assistance to veterans and develop more effective lines of communication and dialogue with adversaries such as China and Russia.

“Swimming the Volga” is a distinctly personal account written by Brigadier General Peter B. Zwack that begins in 1989 (in the waning years of the Cold War) when as a young army Captain, he received both a Soviet visa and US approval to study Russian at a regional university in Kalinin. This occurred in Russia over the turbulent 1990s just before the rise of Vladimir Putin. General Zwack also highlights how the Russian “state of mind” has changed from 1989 to today, whether the US and Russia are moving to a new Cold War, unexpected consequences of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, revitalization of NATO, red lines to avoid World War 3, and how—even with the UN Security Council being semi-paralyzed-- several United Nations agencies are playing a vital role in Ukraine, such as the UN World Food Program (WFP) , UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), UN Children’s’ Fund (UNICEF), as well as his suggestions for ending the Ukrainian-Russian conflict.

Dr. Alice Mah, Professor of Sociology at the University of Warwick, has research interests in environmental justice, corporate power, and the politics of green industrial transformations. She is the author of “Plastic Unlimited: How Corporations Are Fuelling the Ecological Crisis and What We Can Do About It.” Dr. Mah focuses on how plastics are devastating to the environment, alternatives to plastics, shortcomings of recycling, electronic waste disposal, finite resources for an expanding population and demand, and the role of the United Nations Environment Programme’s recent plastics agreement adopted in Nairobi to curtail their uses, as well as the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports, and the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals in their battle against the climate crisis.

Yasmine Sherif, Director of the United Nations Education Cannot Wait Program, highlights how Education Cannot Wait (ECW) is the United Nations global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises. ECW supports and protects holistic learning outcomes – so no one is left behind. A recent Global Estimates Study revealed that there are now 222 million crisis-affected children and adolescents in need of urgent, educational support; a significant increase from the estimated 75 million children in 2016. The Ukraine crisis, the Yemen crisis, the Afghanistan crisis and so many other humanitarian emergencies around the world disrupt the education of millions of children every day. Education Cannot Wait has just launched an inspiring #222MillionDreams global campaign in the lead-up to ECW’s High-Level Financing Conference taking place on 16-17 February 2023.

Ambassador (retired) Carey Cavanaugh is professor of diplomacy and conflict resolution at the University of Kentucky and chairman of International Alert, a London-based independent peacebuilding organization. His foreign service career focused on conflict resolution, arms control, and humanitarian issues. Ambassador Cavanaugh discusses NATO solidarity on Ukraine, the unexpected consequences of launching a war, the interdependence of the countries of the world and the importance of the United Nations agencies ranging from the UN Security Council, the General Assembly, the World Food Program, UN Refugee Agency, UNICEF, IAEA at Chernobyl and others in working to extend humanitarian assistance, reduce conflict and promote peace and security.

Dr. Kevin Gallagher, director of the Global Policy Center at Boston University and co-author of “The Case for a New Bretton Woods: Reforming Global Economic Governance for Prosperity and the Planet,” focuses on how The Bretton Woods Institutions which are the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF ), both Specialized UN agencies, were set up at a meeting of 43 countries in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, USA in July 1944. Their principal aims were to help rebuild the devastated postwar economy, promote international economic cooperation and reduce poverty. The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects. The IMF encourages international financial cooperation by introducing a system of convertible currencies at fixed exchange rates and extends loans to countries that are experiencing economic distress to avoid or reduce financial crises.

Andrew Hudson, Head of the United Nations Development Program’s

Water and Oceans Governance Program,

explains how the climate crisis is the epicenter of our environmental challenges; however, there are many others such as overfishing, invasive species, pollution from agriculture, wastewater habitat loss of mangroves, coral reefs and seagrass, ocean acidification and islands of plastics floating in the oceans and below surface. He emphasized that the upcoming UN Ocean Conference in Lisbon will focus on sustaining the coral reefs, especially the Great Barrier Reef, the largest in the world. Goal number 14 of the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is to sustainably conserve and use the oceans and seas in a responsible manner.

Dr. Chantal Line Carpentier, New York Office Chief for the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), discusses how UNCTAD serves as the United Nations focal point for trade and development, and for interrelated issues in the areas of finance, technology, investment and sustainable development. She stresses the importance of the Global Crisis Response Group, recently established by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, to develop strategies to confront trade and development challenges in Ukraine and other international hotspots, and the critical role that is played by the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to empower women, combat climate change and eliminate poverty to mention only a few.

Louis Charbonneau, United Nations Director at Human Rights Watch, highlights the critical role played by Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and other such entities to focus the spotlight on human rights violations in dangerous areas, such as the Tigray Region of Ethiopia, Sudan and Ukraine. Although the UN Security Council is paralyzed and needs to be reformed, some other major agencies of the UN are on the ground in Ukraine and are helping to keep millions of people alive. The UN Refugee Agency, which is assisting over 80-million refugees worldwide, is working with millions of Ukrainians who have been forced from their homes. A few other UN agencies in the war zones include the World Food Program, UNICEF and the International Atomic Energy Agency. The UN General Assembly voted to suspend Russia’s participation on the UN Human Rights Council, which humiliated Russia. Ironically, a large number of US media personalities reporting on the Ukrainian conflict do not understand the depth and breadth of the UN, and falsely equate the Security Council as the entire UN System.

Paula Caballero, Regional Managing Director for Latin America with the Nature Conservancy, discusses her recent book, “Redefining Development: The Extraordinary Genesis of the Sustainable Development Goals.” She provides an overview of the importance of the Millennium Development Goals (2000-2015) and the Sustainable Development Goals (2016-2030) in focusing on the economic, social and developmental aspects of eliminating poverty, empowering women and girls, combating climate change, developing sustainable cities and consumption, to mention only a few. A major impetus to launch the Sustainable Development Concept was the 1992 Rio de Janeiro United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) which unveiled Agenda 21, a blueprint for sustainable development activities by the private and public sectors.

Dr. C. Fred Bergsten, Nonresident Senior Fellow and Director Emeritus at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and former Economic Deputy to Dr. Henry Kissinger at the National Security Council, highlights his recent book “The United States vs. China.” Dr. Bergsten focuses on a wide range of topics, such how the US and China can avoid an economic/military Cold War; potential damage to the liberal international economic order; a failed America First unilateral approach to economic sanctions; US-China military budgets; ineffectiveness of the Containment Strategy of China by the US; role of the following flashpoints such as South China Sea, Hong Kong, Spratley Islands and the Uighur persecution; and the importance of decoupling economic issues from others such as climate change and unwinding the economic trade war.