Storella Keynote Emphasizes Importance of Multilateral Diplomacy
On April 30, Ambassador Mark Storella, Professor of the Practice of Diplomacy at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, presented the keynote address for the Commonwealth School’s Model United Nations (UN) on the subject of “Multilateral Diplomacy in at Time of Disruption: Now More than Ever.”
The Commonwealth School is located in Boston’s Back Bay. It works each year with the UN Association of Greater Boston and with the assistance of current and former Pardee School students to organize an annual model UN for students from fifteen high schools in New England and beyond. At COMMUN – as it is known – students develop their debate, negotiation, and problem-solving skills in a multilateral setting.
Storella’s address drew on experiences from his three-decade career as a U.S. diplomat to highlight the need to think of the UN not just as an organization but also as the collection of its parts – 193 nations and many independent UN agencies. Citing support the U.S. received from unexpected quarters when he served as the U.S. representative on the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Storella stressed the need for diplomats to reach out to all nations to achieve progress in multilateral settings.
Storella also encouraged the delegates to recognize that diplomats should be idealistic in their goals in multilateral fora but realistic in the execution of their diplomacy if they want to have any chance of achieving their objectives. As he recounted in the case of the Cambodia peace negotiations, this may entail working with some highly unsavory governments to advance American interests.
Storella averred that disruptions in the current international environment – the rise of China, climate change, COVID-19, and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – have simultaneously made multilateral diplomacy more complicated and more urgent. Despite pessimism about what multilateral diplomacy can achieve, he concluded that it is needed now more than ever.
For more information on the day, visit COMMUN’s website.
Ambassador Mark C. Storella was a United States Foreign Service Officer for over three decades serving as Ambassador to Zambia, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees, and Migration, and Dean of the Leadership and Management School of the Foreign Service Institute. Storella is recipient of the Presidential Rank Award, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Excellence in Service Award, the Thomas Jefferson Award presented by American Citizens Abroad, and several Department of State superior and meritorious honor awards. Learn more about Ambassador Storella on his faculty profile.