High-level dinner on the occasion of the opening of the Global Think Tank Summit

Palais des Nations, Delegates’ Restaurant
Tuesday, 4 December 2014, at 20:00


Dear Colleagues and Friends:

On behalf of the United Nations, a very warm welcome to the Palais des Nations and to International Geneva. It is a privilege to be hosting you, and we look forward to three days of rich and inspiring conversations about how to address the challenges that we are all grappling with.

International Geneva provides a truly unique context for this Summit. Many of the international organizations that are based here represent the very origins of our multilateral system today. But more importantly, the work that takes place here on a daily basis represents the future of global governance and shows a way forward in how to work better together in a changing world. Here connections are built across stakeholder communities and across thematic boundaries to find innovative and lasting solutions to the challenges of today - and tomorrow. This work touches every single individual on this planet in every 24-hour-period – often in ways that are essential to our everyday existence but are little known.

These connections are critical in an increasingly complex world where no challenges can be neatly compartmentalized; where power structures are shifting; where the norms and principles that we have all signed up to are under enormous pressure; where the role of the State as we know it is being recalibrated and where the expectations and possibilities of individuals are being transformed due to technological advances. With this pace and this extent of change, on many levels and all at the same time, it is quite simply an illusion to think that we can continue with business as usual.

We need better and deeper partnerships - partnerships that go beyond superficial interaction - as we have just heard in our opening panel. We also need stronger intellectual underpinnings for our collective work, where we need to draw both on the wealth of ideas that is generated within the United Nations and from external partners, such as think tanks. This is where this Summit has such great potential for connecting reflection and policy-making better across these different dimensions.

I know from long experience that the world of policy-making can seem rather resistant to more profound, long-term analysis. We are all too often in reactive mode, driven by electoral and news cycles that demand instant action. And all too often we find that this instant action produces consequences that are even harder to address further down the line. But reality is imposing itself: we cannot afford to continue with short-term solutions. The challenges are too complex and the stakes are too high. In this context, the need for engagement between international organizations, think tanks and research institutions is greater than ever.

This is why we believe this Summit is so important, and we very much appreciate that you are all part of it. I hope that the special “spirit of Geneva”, the particular way of doing business differently here, will inspire your discussions over the coming days.

Before I hand over the floor, I would like to thank most warmly all the partners of the Summit - University of Pennsylvania, the Graduate Institute for International and Development Studies, the Swiss Confederation, the Permanent Mission of the United States here in Geneva, Foraus, the Canton of Geneva and the Foundation for Geneva. As you can tell, the Summit is itself very much an example of a multi-stakeholder partnership. Thank you of course to the University of Pennsylvania for so generously funding this dinner.

In conclusion, a very special thank you to Prof. McGann and Prof. Biersteker and their teams. Without their enthusiasm and drive, this Summit would simply not have come about and I hope that you will join me in a round of applause to thank them for all their work.

It is now my pleasure to hand over to Ambassador Jürg Lauber who is Head of the United Nations and International Organisations Division at the Swiss Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs for a word of welcome on behalf of our Swiss hosts.

Once again, a warm welcome to you all.