2005-2006 New Millennium Distinguished Visiting Scholars Series
United States Priorities for United Nations Reform

Ambassador Shirin Tahir-Kheli, Ph.D.
Senior Advisor to the Secretary of State on United Nations Reform

Wednesday, March 29, 2006, 12:30 to 1:30 p.m.

Dr. Carol H. Meyer Room (311/312)
School of Social Work - 1255 Amsterdam Avenue
(between 121st & Morningside Drive)

Presentation
For the last year member states of the UN and the Secretary General have been actively engaged in urgently needed reform for the UN. This talk will focus on US priorities and timelines for the reform effort.

About the Presenter
Ambassador Shirin Tahir-Kheli was appointed by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to serve as her senior advisor and chief interlocutor on United Nations reform. In collaboration with the Assistant Secretary for International Organizations, Ambassador Tahir-Kheli reports directly to the Secretary of State. She engages the UN Secretary General and Secretariat as well as other UN member states on UN reform efforts. Ambassador Tahir-Kheli coordinates within the State Department and interagency community the U.S. government’s positions on UN reform.

Ambassador Tahir-Kheli most recently was the Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Democracy, Human Rights and International Operations at the National Security Council. Prior to that she was a Research Professor at Johns Hopkins University Foreign Policy Institute, School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, where she was the founding Director of the South Asia Program at the Foreign Policy Institute. Ambassador Tahir-Kheli was appointed Alternate United States Representative to the United Nations for Special Political Affairs serving from 1990 to 1993. Ambassador Tahir-Kheli also served as Director of Political Military Affairs and then as Director of Near East and South Asian Affairs from 1984 to 1989 with the National Security Council staff. From 1982 to 1984, Ambassador Tahir-Kheli was a member of the Policy Planning Staff at the Department of State.

During her career of service, Ambassador Tahir-Kheli was Head of the United States Delegation to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in 2001; she was appointed by President Bush to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom; and she served on the Presidential Commission on Public Service from 1992 to 1993.

Ambassador Tahir-Kheli has an M.A. and a Ph.D. in International Relations from the University of Pennsylvania and a B.A. from Ohio Wesleyan University. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

Additional Information
United States Committed to U.N. Reform, Tahir-Kheli Says

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THIS IS A PUBLIC EVENT