A Conversation with Tom Weiss

On Current International Conflicts, the UN, and Being an "Inside-Outsider"

Presidential Professor Thomas G. Weiss has been a faculty member of the Ph.D. Program in Political Science and director of the Ralph Bunche Institute for International Studies (RBIIS) since 1998. In the latter role, his wide ranging activities are closely linked to the programs of the Institute. He is co-director of its UN Intellectual History Project, editor of the journal Global Governance, and research director of the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty. Earlier in his career, Weiss worked in the UN secretariat for ten years--and has experience addressing problems of economic and social development in 125 countries--before returning to the academic life at Brown University, where he taught from 1990 to 1998. He has written extensively on international organization, conflict management, peacekeeping, and humanitarian action, including the fourth edition of his best-selling textbook, The United Nations and Changing World Politics (Westview, 2004), and he recently edited two books on terrorism: Wars on Terrorism and Iraq (Routledge, 2004) and The UN and Terrorism (Indiana University Press, 2004). Folio spoke with Weiss about the challenges of studying global politics as they unfold, and his unique role as a scholar with inside knowledge of the UN.

The two books grew directly out of two conferences co-sponsored by the RBIIS. One, on the UN's contributions before and after September 11th, represented a collaboration with Oxford University's Centre for International Studies. The other, which focuses much more on the trade-off between the war on terrorism and human rights issues domestically as well as the US attitude toward multilateral collaboration, grew out of my collaboration with GC colleagues Meg Crahan and John Goering on a year-long series of meetings sponsored by the Bunche Institute and the Center for the Humanities. Both books were designed to be topical. That's one thing we do--sponsor conferences that result in books on important current topics.

One of the problems is the relatively short shelf-life of lots of the things we're working on. For instance, the Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty, for which I was research director, finalized its report, The Responsibility to Protect, in mid-August 2001. Talk about bad timing! Then, September 11th happened, which then led to Afghanistan and Iraq. These are not humanitarian interventions, but they have humanitarian dimensions that are on everyone's mind. And so, I have just finished a second edition of an earlier book, Military-Civilian Interactions, which is virtually a new book because of the massive amount of new case material. I sent that to the publisher three weeks ago, but Lord knows, by the time the book is out, what else will happen. I can pray for a peaceful couple of years, but I have to be on my toes all the time. And this is anything except boring.

Although my work in the last fifteen years has revolved around humanitarian intervention, before that I worked on economic and social development in poor countries. I remain convinced that this part of the UN will ultimately be the its strongest legacy: the story of its effort to develop new ideas, to massage them, and try to turn them into principles and norms that can guide the behavior of states, institutions, and individuals. So my side-kicks Sir Richard Jolly and Dr. Louis Emmerij [senior research fellows at the RBIIS], who themselves were major players in the UN and are now retired, and I have embarked on this truly ambitions effort to document these important ideas. The UN Intellectual History project will result in fourteen books, and five have now been published. The volume that we're working on at present is an oral history of many people involved--very powerful individuals with good ideas, who are very committed to social justice and economic development. The 75 interviews will make up a kind of "Studs Terkel" documentary on the United Nations. It's been fun speaking with people who were there in 1945 when the UN was founded, or who were in their home countries when decolonization took place, or who were behind the Iron Curtain trying to teach UN affairs. It's nice to go back 50 or 60 years instead of 50 or 60 minutes.

It's quite surprising. Most of the emphasis, in previous histories, has been placed on international peace and security--very little on economic and social development. When UN itself, or different parts of the UN write up their story, it tends to be self-serving and focused on bureaucracies rather than ideas. We hope that our depiction is sympathetic but includes warts and all. It's not an apology for the UN, but it's an important story, one that, on balance, should help with US attitudes toward international cooperation.

One of the encouraging developments over the 15 to 20 years is that people who work within inter-governmental and non-governmental organizations are eager for better analytical hooks on which to hang their experiences. If there are scholars whom they trust, who speak a language that is straightforward, and who are not afraid of getting close to the problem--of going to Bosnia or Rwanda--then the people in the organizations are willing to listen. There is a group of people in the middle, including myself, who are not totally outside but "inside-outsiders," who like to see that theory can help practice, just as practice has to inform theory.

I study contemporary problems that go beyond the borders of the United States, and how at this moment in time with a complex array of actors on the world stage--including states, international institutions, civil society, multinational corporations, and individuals--one can pull that motley assortment together and try to make a small dent in solving some of these problems, or at least making them less acute. And that changes by topic. If you want to stop a future Rwanda, we're not going to be able to do so without a serious expression of political will and commitment of major military influence. If you're thinking about money-laundering and terrorism, there are a different set of actors that must be mobilized. If you're thinking of addressing gender inequalities in this country or elsewhere, it's still a different set of variables and actors. The United Nations is a focus of my work, because all of these problems come together there and because the world organization is an essential element of future solutions, even, or perhaps especially, for the United States as the so-called remaining superpower discovers daily in occupied Iraq.

Well, tomorrow morning I'm having breakfast with the new Canadian ambassador to discuss follow-up for The Responsibility to Protect. And the Swiss ambassador has invited me to a dinner the following day regarding the nature of contemporary war. Both countries have supported the UN Intellectual History Project. There are so many UN related events here in New York that the opportunity for intellectual sparks, on the issues that I care dearly about, would be hard to replicate anywhere else. It might be quieter. I might have fewer distractions. But in terms of stimulation, it's a hard place to beat. That's why I'm delighted to be based at 365 Fifth Avenue.