Dean Smith Appointed President of the Academic Council on the United Nations System

In April, the Dean of the School of Diplomacy and International Relations, Courtney Smith, Ph.D., was appointed president of the Academic Council on the United Nations System (ACUNS), the leading global association of scholars and practitioners dedicated to studying the United Nations system.

Established in 1987, initially by a group of scholars at Dartmouth College in the U.S., ACUNS is an independent nonprofit organization that unites students, scholars, advisers, practitioners and policymakers around academic research on major international challenges. Through events, publications and networking opportunities, ACUNS aims to stimulate and produce scholarship, legal instruments and informed policy solutions to global challenges, especially in the UN system. The organization has approximately 2,500 individual members and 120 institutional members, including Seton Hall’s School of Diplomacy, spanning several faculties and connecting thousands of professionals.

Smith’s connection to ACUNS stretches back to graduate school, where his advisor recommended the organization as a way to build networks across institutions. “There are not many people at any one university that study the UN,” he noted. “It’s important to have a network that stretches across campuses.” Since 1996, he has participated in several ACUNS signature activities, including the Annual Meeting and Summer Workshop. While its Annual Meetings rotate across regions, recent gatherings have taken place in Nairobi, Tokyo, Lisbon and Geneva, with the aim to include as many scholars and professionals as possible, especially from the Global South.

The Summer Workshop is focused on bringing together junior scholars, such as doctoral candidates, postdoctoral fellows and early-career faculty, alongside emerging UN professionals. "It is still probably one of the single best professional development things I have done as a scholar," he reflected, nearly three decades later. The organization also publishes Global Governance, a peer-reviewed journal with sections dedicated to policy-relevant contributions from practitioners. Smith's own first academic publication appeared in its pages.

The opportunity of the presidency comes in a moment he describes as both urgent and sobering. With multilateralism under significant strain, including sweeping budget cuts across the UN system, Smith sees ACUNS’ role as more critical than ever. "We are very much aware of their shortcomings," he said of international institutions, "but we also understand that as imperfect as these organizations are, they are indispensable." His inaugural address at the annual meeting in Lisbon is expected to frankly acknowledge those challenges while reaffirming the importance of ACUNS work.

The presidency also carries direct benefits for Seton Hall’s School of Diplomacy community. Recently, the undergraduate student Allie Vice had the opportunity to present her research on nuclear disarmament at a UN conference organized by Mayors for Peace, an initiative coordinated by the mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The connection between this institution and the School of Diplomacy traces back over two decades to when a representative of the UN and Dean Smith first met through ACUNS. "It helps us reputationally within the UN scholarly community," Smith said of his long involvement with the organization.

With his service as president, that relationship is poised to deepen further, a distinction that reflects not only Smith's decades of scholarly engagement but also the School of Diplomacy's enduring commitment to the academic debate surrounding international relations and the United Nations system.

Categories: Nation and World