The Security Council's Role in International Conflict: Why Small-State Diplomacy Matters

10/24/24 • 74 min

For our first Policy & Practice seminar of academic year 2024-2025 we were joined by ex-Ambassador Simona Leskovar. The ex-Ambassador talked about her own experience both in trying to get Slovenia elected to the UN Security Council, but also more broadly about her experience in the UK and within the UN. The talk included a discussion as to why small states matter in international security. We are delighted that Sir Mark Lyall Grant GCMG joined us to give a response.

Meet the speakers

ex-Ambassador Simona Leskovar
Simona Leskovar is Ambassador of the Republic of Slovenia to the Court of St James's until August 2024. Prior to this appointment, she was State Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs of the Republic of Slovenia.
Ambassador Leskovar is a career diplomat for 28 years of service in Slovenian diplomacy. She served as Slovenian Ambassador to Japan and Republic of Korea, was Deputy Permanent Representative of Slovenia at Permanent Mission of Slovenia to the United Nations in New York and member or head of several Slovenian delegations and missions to various conferences and events within the UN. Her first post as a diplomat was Washington DC.
Ambassador Leskovar holds a position of the EU adviser to Slovenian Foreign Minister during the first Slovenian EU presidency in 2008. She was later Director of Young Bled Strategic Forum and the national Focal Point for Responsibility-to-Protect.
Simona Leskovar studied international relations at the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana, and at the Netherlands Institute of International Relations Clingendael in The Hague. Ambassador Leskovar initiated the MFA programme 'Young Ambassadors', a mentoring project that was organized together with foreign female Ambassadors in Slovenia, and aimed at encouraging young women to consider a career in diplomacy and international relations.
Ambassador Leskovar was appointed Program Director of Bled Strategic Forum at the end of August 2024.

Sir Mark Lyall Grant GCMG
Sir Mark Lyall Grant served as the United Kingdom’s Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the UN from 2009 to 2015. During this tenure, he served as President of the Security Council four times. He subsequently served as a National Security Adviser during David Cameron and Theresa May’s premierships. Following his retirement from the civil service, he is now a Visiting Professor at King's College London and a strategic advisor.

Chair: Prof. Veronika Fikfakis Professor of Human Rights and International Law in the UCL Department of Political Science and School of Public Policy.

Meet the speakers

Chair: Prof. Veronika Fikfakis Professor of Human Rights and International Law in the UCL Department of Political Science and School of Public Policy.

Previous Episode

But What Can I Do? In Conversation With Alastair Campbell

Political Strategist, New European editor-at-large, mental health campaigner and co-host of the country’s Number 1 podcast, The Rest is Politics, Alastair Campbell came to UCL for a special opening event of the UCL Department of Political Science's Policy & Practice seminar series for 2023-24, in partnership with the UCL European Institute and UCL Policy Lab.

His new book "But What Can I Do?" went straight to the top of the Sunday Times best-seller lists. In it, Campbell argues that the next generation has to rescue politics from the populist, post-truth morass into which it has fallen in the era of Trump, Johnson, Brexit and Putin. This event explored the hopes and concerns of young people from across UCL and London about engaging in politics, and consider how our political system can become more open to their participation.

Facilitated by the brilliant Julia Macfarlane of ABC News and joined on stage by students from UCL Political Science, Alastair will seek to address the challenge laid out in the sub-title of his book: Why Politics Has Gone So Wrong, and How YOU Can Help Fix It.
Watch the Julia Gillard speech:

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Next Episode

Priorities for the new UK Government: Economic growth (and its limits)

Recorded 24 October 2024. A new government has been in power in Westminster since July. In our Policy & Practice mini-series, Priorities for the new UK Government, we will explore key issues on which the government is—or ought to be—focusing its attention. In the first event in this miniseries, we discuss the Government's central focus: economic growth.

Meet the speakers-

Emily Fry is a Senior Economist at the Resolution Foundation. Her research primarily covers productivity, trade, energy and how they intersect with living standards in the UK. Previously, she spent several years in finance and academia primarily focused on sustainability and net zero.

Shanker Singham is an international trade expert and CEO of Competere Ltd, a company that provides law and policy advice to governments and companies, and that promotes international trade and competition policy throughout the world. He also serves as Co-Chairman of The Growth Commission and Co-Vice-Chairman of the Trade Facilitation Commission. He has advised parliamentarians and government ministers on the overall approach to UK trade policy, including the Brexit negotiations.

Luke Raikes is a research director and Deputy General Secretary at the Fabian Society. His expertise covers a range of economic issues, including regional economies and inequalities, devolution, productivity, and industrial strategy. Prior to his current role, he led IPPR North’s research on regional economies and devolution.

Chair: Prof. Lucy Barnes is Professor of Political Economy in the UCL Department of Political Science and School of Public Policy. https://www.ucl.ac.uk/political-science