CARNEGIE JOINS MACARTHUR FOUNDATION TO LAUNCH ONE-YEAR RESEARCH AND POLICY COMMISSION FOCUSED ON THE PROBLEM OF STATE SOVEREIGNTY AND INTERNATIONAL HUMANITARIAN RESPONSIBILITIES
Carnegie Corporation of New York has joined with the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to support the Canadian government’s recent initiative to engage the world’s leaders in the difficult question of intervention and state sovereignty. At the United Nation’s on September 14, 2000, Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Lloyd Axworthy launched the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty, which will bring government leaders, scholars and researchers together in a two-track, year-long effort to stimulate new scholarship around this question and to challenge diplomats to focus on the consequences of the clash of these two ideals.
“What draws Carnegie to this ambitious effort envisioned by Minister Axworthy,” says Vartan Gregorian, president of Carnegie Corporation, “is our mandate from Andrew Carnegie to pursue the mission of peace. But we are also drawn to the Canadians’ vision of a commission that emphasizes both scholarship and practical application. My colleague at MacArthur, Jonathan Fanton and I, believe that what will make this commission different than others is the fact that those who must deal with the practical implications of competing interests will focus on the consequences of these issues. We believe that the group of leaders assembled by Minister Axworthy and the Canadian government will help inform world leaders and the United Nations in their deliberations.”
Minister Axworthy indicated that the commission’s vision was crafted in response to the 1999 challenge by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to ensure that the indifference and inaction by the world community in the face of situations like Rwanda and Srebrenica are no longer an option.
Two co-chairs will lead the work of the commission: Gareth Evans, former Foreign Minister of Australia and currently President of the International Crisis Group and Mohamed Sahnoun, a Special Advisor to the UN Secretary-General on issues related to the Horn of Africa. The commissioners who will serve span a range of different perspectives and experience: legal, political and ethical and come from both hemispheres. Minister Axworthy will chair an Advisory Board of current and former ministers who include the Right Honorable Robin Cook of Great Britain and His Excellency George A. Papandreou of Greece.
The commission has established an ambitious one-year schedule to produce a final report that reflects the research and the input from roundtables and conferences that will be convened across the globe. The commission’s purpose is to build a broader understanding of the issues and foster a global political consensus on how to move these issues forward.
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