The Sorensen Distinguished Lecture on the United Nations
The Sorensen Distinguished Lecture on the United Nations is an annual lecture and dinner established in 1996 with funds from former Council Director Theodore C. Sorensen, who has been a member for over 40 years. The lecture series honors his wife, Gillian Martin Sorensen, for her work at the United Nations. The Sorensen Distinguished Lectureship is reserved for events on the subject of the United Nations or its work around the world.
Sorensen Lectures:
General Meeting
Sorensen Distinguished Lecture on the United Nations: A Conversation with Helen Clark
Speaker: Helen Clark, Administrator, United Nations Development Program; Former Prime Minister, New Zealand (1999-2008)
Presider: Jeffrey D. Sachs, Director, Earth Institute, Quetelet Professor of Sustainable Development, and Professor of Health Policy and Management, Columbia University
October 27, 2010
General Meeting
Sorensen Distinguished Lecture on the United Nations with Zalmay M. Khalilzad
Speaker: Zalmay M. Khalilzad, U.S. Representative to the United Nations
Presider: Barbara Crossette, Editor, The InterDependent , a UNA-USA Magazine; Former United Nations Bureau Chief, New York Times
December 3, 2007
General Meeting
Sorensen Distinguished Lecture on the United Nations: A Conversation with Mark Malloch Brown
Speaker: Mark Malloch Brown, Deputy Secretary-General, United Nations
Presider: Matthew Nimetz, Managing Director, General Atlantic LLC; Personal Envoy of the Secretary-General for talks between Greece and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia
December 11, 2006
General Meeting
Sorensen Distinguished Lecture on the United Nations
Speaker: Paul A. Volcker, Chair, Independent Inquiry of Oil for Food Programme, United Nations Former Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
Presider: Warren M. Hoge, Foreign Affairs Correspondent at the United Nations, The New York Times
November 22, 2005
General Meeting
Sorensen Distinguished Lecture on the United Nations: Why Bother with Diplomacy?
Presider: George J. Mitchell, Former Member, United States Senate (D-ME)
Speaker: Kieran Prendergast, Under Secretary General for Political Affairs, United Nations
May 26, 2004
General Meeting
Women in Leadership: Their Challenges in the Developing World
Presider: Peggy Dulany, Chair, The Synergos Institute
Speakers: Mary Robinson, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, World Food Programme
Catherine Bertini, Executive Director, United Nations Children’s Fund
Carol Bellamy, Executive Director, World Health Organization
Gro Harlem Brundtland, Director-General, United Nations Population Fund
Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, Executive Director
October 18, 2001
General Meeting
The United Nations and Global Community
Presider: William H. Luers, Chairman, President and CEO, United Nations Association of the U.S.A.
Speaker: John G. Ruggie, Assistant Secretary-General, United Nations
November 29, 2000
General Meeting
What the United States and the United Nations Can Do to Strengthen the U.N.
Presider: Donald F. McHenry, Research Professor of Diplomacy & International Affairs, School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University
Speaker: Lee H. Hamilton, Director, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars; former Chairman, House Foreign Affairs Committee (D-Ind.)
May 27, 1999
General Meeting
An Inside Look at the Crisis in Iraq
Presider: Richard N. Gardner
Speaker: Richard Butler, Executive Chairman of the U.N. Special Commission
February 24, 1998
General Meeting
The United Nations: New Priorities, New Directions
Presider: Donald F. McHenry
Speaker: Kofi Annan, Secretary-General, the United Nations
April 22, 1997
