A two day international symposium entitled, “Transforming Conflict and Building Cohesion through Identity,” was held at Doshisha University in the historic scenic city, Kyoto in the first week of July, on 5 and 6 July 2013. The symposium brought together anthropologists, sociologists and political scientists from around the world. (Guneshwor Ojha)

　The annual conference of the Academic Council on the United Nations System (ACUNS)　was held at Lund University in Sweden from 17 to 19 June 2013. The theme of this year`s conference was “Leadership in Global Governance.” More than 200 scholars and researchers from all over the world participated in the conference. (The photo shows, Former President of the Republic of Slovenia Danilo Türk speaking at the last plenary session along with David Malone, Rector of UN University.) (Hillel Loew)

　On 27 April 2013, Professor Sukehiro Hasegawa spoke to 60 officers of the Ministry of Defense as well as the Cabinet Peace Cooperation Headquarters about the peacekeeping and peacebuilding issues. He presented his analysis of such events as the security incidents resulting in death of UN volunteer electoral supervisor Atsuhito Nakata and Japanese police officer Haruyuki Takada in Cambodia in 1993, the Battle of Mogadishu in 1994, and the Kibeho Tragedy in Rwanda in 1995. He also stressed the need to achieve overall positive results through coordination and integration of security, humanitarian and development assistance provided by UN and other organizations in conflict-prone and post-conflict countries, bearing in mind the need to balance national and human security concerns. (Shogo Yoshida)

　According to the press release made by the Government of Timor-Leste, the Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, H.E. Mr. Kay Rala Xanana Gusmão, has appointed Professor Sukehiro Hasegawa, former Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General as his Special Adviser on Good Governance and Development. Please refer to the Government’s website:  http://timor-leste.gov.tl/?p=7975&lang=en&n=1 for details of the announcement. (Shogo Yoshida)

　From 1st to 5th of April, Japanese students attending graduate schools in the United Kingdom and other European universities participated in the training program on the path to become UN professional staff and the competencies required for the entry to UN organizations. This program, which was organized by the Matsumoto Kenshukai in Geneva, was assisted by many supporters and volunteers. It reflected the recognition of Japanese government and people about the need to increase Japanese staff presence in the UN and other international organizations commensurate with the share of Japanese financial contributions to the organizations. In this program, we visited several agencies such as UNCTAD, WHO, IOM, UNHCR and UNICEF and met current and former staff of the UN and other international organizations. All of the lectures were most helpful in providing us with not only relevant information but also lessons we should keep in mind for our studies and future career goals. On the first and third days of the seminar, Professor Hasegawa made informative talks on transformation of roles and policies of international organizations and the latest doctrines on norms of protection. He also advised us on the importance of knowing ourselves thoroughly in terms of our suitability to any specific career path we wish to pursue by using the Myers-Briggs personality type indicators. I am sure this training program will be a turning point for us in making decisions for our career paths. (Yuhei Shiratsuchi)

　We participated in a study trip to visit UN organizations in Geneva from March 25th to 29th. On our last day, we had a seminar by Mr. Alain Dick and Professor Hasegawa. They mainly presented about skills and knowledge necessary to work in the international organisations with their experiences in their UN careers and current attempts to develop the structure of international organisations. At the beginning, Mr. Dick explained two core important concepts to build UN career in terms of mind perspective; motivation and communication. In particularly, he strongly emphasized the importance of knowing and understanding “who I am”; in the other words, what I am eager to achieve in both short and long time periods. At the same time, he advised us to understand the aspirations of our partners and gave us examples of the impotence of communication with interviewers as they expect when we apply the international organisation and we move forward in our UN careers. (Ayaka Izu)

　Dear Professor Hasegawa (Cc. All seminar students), thank you for your nice pictures of Swiss Alps Mountains, Professor Hasegawa. They are majestic but I felt freezing cold when I saw these photos. Yesterday, I walked on streets around Hosei University and enjoyed seeing full-blown cherry blossoms that were so beautiful. They showed me spring is coming here. Cherry blossom is a symbol of meeting people and parting them. When the cherry blossom ends and the new school year starts in April, we will start our own separate lives. You will no longer be with us in class, so I wish you and all seminar students a good start of your new lives. (Shogo Yoshida)

　皆さん、お元気ですか。3月23日にスイス・アルプスの標高3020mのティルスという山の頂上までケーブルカーで家族と一緒に上ってきました。一年を通して氷の中にある山頂は素晴らしかったです。3月の後半というのに、スイスでは今日も雪が降りました。自宅の周りの雪かきに1時間ほどかかりました。早く春になってもらいたいです。(長谷川祐弘)

　長谷川ゼミ生、OB/OGのみなさん、今、スイスに来ております。ジュネーブでは昨夜より雪が降り、真っ白の美しい世界となりました。まもなく、国際機関人材育成セミナーが2週間あり、講義をいたします。4月には東京に戻り、20日には平和構築研究会の第1回を法政大学で開催します。土曜日ですので、参加して下さい。今後も一緒に学んでいきましょう。 (長谷川祐弘)

　On 12 March 2013, the 17th interactive seminar on global issues was held at United Nations University, Tokyo. It was entitled “Civilians in Harm’s Way: A Tale of Two Protection Norms”. In this seminar, the participants discussed the two complex concepts: Responsibility to Protect (R2P) and Protection of Civilian (POC). First of all, Dr. Sampford, Professor of Law and Research Professor of Ethics at Griffith University, made a presentation about his analysis on their development of R2P and POC as international norms. Then, Dr. Popovski, Senior Academic Programme Officer of UNU-ISP, made a presentation about their difference between R2P and POC and the “myth” of R2P. He compared R2P with POC in the way of their legal sources and actors. After their presentation, three guests: His Excellency Dr. Charles Murigande, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Rwanda to Japan, Mr. Reiichiro Takahashi, Director-General, International Peace Cooperation Headquarters, Cabinet Office, Government of Japan, and Dr. Johan Cels, Representative in Japan, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), made a few comments. Finally, some audiences asked several interesting questions of the presenters and commentators. (Shogo Yoshida)

　On March 9th, we visited Professor Hasegawa at his residence in Hiroo, Tokyo. These students were Torai Takenawa, Takaya Furukawa and Masanobu Hayama who had studied abroad at South Kent School, Masako Ota who had spent one year at Kent School, and Misano Matsue who had gone to Marvelwood School located in Connecticut, USA. They informed Professor Hasegawa what they did in their study and sports at their schools. They felt strongly that Japanese high school students should have more opportunities to study abroad as they would benefit significantly from their experience. We enjoyed talking to not only Professor Hasegawa but also Ms. Ikeda and Mr. Tsuchiya who also participated in the reunion. (Masako Ota)

　On 29th and 30th January 2013, Professor Hasegawa gave a lecture to a group of about 25 trainees of the Hiroshima Peacebuilders Center (HPC) from Asian countries and Japan on the role of the United Nations and leadership in peacebuilding. His lecture consisted of a presentation of the evolutional changes in peacekeeping operations, transition from peacekeeping into peacebuilding phases, the significance of peacebuilding in a wider context, UN’s peacebuilding architecture and lessons learned from UN experience in peacekeeping and peacebuilding operations. […] (Shogo Yoshida)

　On 16th January 2013, Professor Hasegawa conducted a workshop for 14 trainees on the Delivering-As-One process held at the FASID seminar room in Azabu, Tokyo. Yuta Nakamoto, former chief of the Hasegawa seminar class, Kazuyuki Toriumi, a Hosei graduate student and Shogo Yoshida, a Hasegawa seminar student, joined in the workshop which dealt with the Rwanda case.
　After an introductory presentation by Professor Hasegawa, the workshop participants constituted two groups and carried out CCA and UNDAF with a view to drawing up the key goals of One UN Program in order of priority, their time schedule of events and locations. Nakamoto acted as Minister of Foreign Affairs of Rwanda, Toriumi as a representative of NGO Human Rights and Media (CNN/BBC), and Yoshida as UN Humanitarian Coordinator.
　Afterward, Ms. Sachiko Matsumoto, coordinator of the FASID training program, provided a feedback from the participants. They seemed to have found the exercise highly useful in understanding the complexity of coordinating the views and priorities attached to various development programs by host Government, UN agencies and donor countries of what should be done in a coordinated manner. (Shogo Yoshida)