John Holmes Memorial Lecture

Abstract

I DID NOT KNOW JOHN HOLMES , BUT I THINK I WOULD HAVE LIKED HIM . H IS long service to academia, the United Nations, and the government of Canada is emblematic of the ties that the Academic Council on the United Nations System (ACUNS) seeks to foster between research and practice. And his own humility and humor provide inspiration to us all. I recently reread his 1988 keynote address, “Looking Backwards and For wards.” 1 Holmes perceived—in those dying days of the Cold War—that the UN had reached a crossroads in its history. But he also cautioned that a mo ment filled with promise and uncertainty should not give way to reinvention without a due understanding of what had come before. Those times—thought by some to herald a “new world order”—required visionary leadership in global affairs. They offered the UN a chance to reclaim the purpose of its founders. Our own times, you might think, bring more uncertainty than prom ise. It is true that the foundations of the global order are creaking under the weight of myriad challenges—from militant extremism to climate change. Such phenomena not only confront us with direct threats, but also risk an ero sion of our faith in the potential of the UN to act in the interest of the global collective good. It seems that, while the need for more effective global gover nance is more pressing than ever, those actors with the potential to provide it are faltering. Indeed, global governance, a term itself emblematic of the postNCold War order and the beginning of the new century, is in a state of deep crisis. Just as in 1988, the challenge falls to us to renew the promise of the world organization. Holmes and his colleagues undertook to “save succeeding gen erations from the scourge of war.” 2 This timeless duty is now ours.