Created in 1945, the UN Security Council is carrying responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security ever since.

On 24 February 2022, the aggression by the Russian Federation against Ukraine put the UN system into one of the most serious tests ever. As a permanent member of the Security Council, Russia vetoed the Council’s action to stop the unlawful use of force. However, on 2 March, in a defining moment for the world’s only truly universal global organization, the UN General Assembly adopted a strong resolution condemning the aggression and calling for an immediate end of hostilities. Large majority of UN members voted in favour of this resolution, which clearly demonstrated broad readiness of the international community to stand up for the UN Charter. The UN has also mobilised one of the fastest and most generous contributions of humanitarian aid to Ukraine.

In 2020-2021, Estonia was an elected member of the UNSC for the first time ever. We are convinced that the Council’s five permanent and ten elected members each carry responsibility for upholding the rules-based international order. The conference sheds light on the opportunities of elected members to use the Council as a venue to work for peace and have an impact on global affairs in these turbulent times.

Read also Richard Gowan’s new analysis on Estonia’s Council term through the lens of three crises: (1) the 2020 Iranian sanctions “snapback” debate; (2) the Council’s muted response to the deterioration of security in Eastern Europe through 2020 and 2021, beginning with the post-electoral protests in Belarus; and (3) the UN’s response to the Afghan collapse in the second half of 2021.

Edgars Rinkēvičs

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Latvia

Twitter: @EdgarsRinkevics

H.E. Mr Edgars Rinkēvičs has served as Minister of Foreign Affairs of Latvia since October 2011. Prior to this appointment, he was Head of the Chancery of the President of Latvia from October 2008 until October 2011. He also served as State Secretary in the Ministry of Defence of the Republic of Latvia from August 1997 until October 2008. Additionally, he worked as Chief of the Office for organising the NATO Summit of Heads of State and Government, which took place in Riga in 2006. Mr Rinkēvičs graduated from the University of Latvia and received a master’s degree in Political Science in 1997. From 1999 to 2000, he also studied at the U.S. National Defence University and the Industrial College of the Armed Forces and has a graduate degree in National Resource Strategy.

Kristi Raik

Director of the Estonian Foreign Policy Institute at the ICDS

Twitter: @KristiRaik

Dr Kristi Raik has been Director of the Estonian Foreign Policy Institute at the ICDS since February 2018. She is also an Adjunct Professor at the University of Turku. Dr Raik has previously served inter alia as a Senior Research Fellow and Acting Programme Director at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs in Helsinki; an official at the General Secretariat of the Council of the European Union in Brussels; and a Visiting Fellow at the Centre for European Policy Studies in Brussels and the International Centre for Policy Studies in Kyiv. Dr Raik has a PhD from the University of Turku. She has published, lectured and commented widely on European foreign and security policy.

Jean-Yves Le Drian

Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs of France

Twitter: @JY_LeDrian

Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya

Leader of the Belarusian Democratic Movement

Twitter: @Tsihanouskaya

Ms Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya is the leader of the Belarusian democratic forces whom independent observers agree won the presidential election in August 2020 against the autocratic President Aleksandr Lukashenko. As leader of the Belarusian democratic movement, she has visited 26 countries where she has gathered support and advocated for the release of more than 1 000 political prisoners along with striving for a peaceful transition of power through free and fair elections. In meetings with President Biden, Chancellor Merkel, President Macron, President von der Leyen and other world leaders, Ms Tsikhanouskaya has emphasised the need for a bolder response to the actions of the Belarusian dictatorship. She has become a symbol of the peaceful struggle for democracy and strong female leadership. Among dozens of distinctions, she is a recipient of the Sakharov Prize awarded by the European Parliament, the 2022 International Four Freedoms Award and the Charlemagne Prize. In 2021 and 2022, she was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda and Members of the Norwegian Parliament, respectively.

Ihor Zhovkva

Deputy Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine

Richard Gowan

UN Director of the International Crisis Group

Twitter: @RichardGowan1

Mr Richard Gowan has been UN Director at the International Crisis Group since March 2020. He has contributed to Crisis Group publications on the UN, sanctions against Iran, COVID and conflict, and the international response to the war in Ukraine. He has previously worked with the European Council on Foreign Relations, New York University Center on International Cooperation and the Foreign Policy Centre (London). He has taught at the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University and Stanford in New York. He has also worked as a consultant for organisations including the UN Department of Political Affairs, UN Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on International Migration, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Rasmussen Global, UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs and Global Affairs Canada. From 2013 to 2019, Mr Gowan wrote a weekly column entitled “Diplomatic Fallout” for World Politics Review.

Karin Landgren

Executive Director of Security Council Report

Twitter: @LandgrenKarin

Ms Karin Landgren is the Executive Director of Security Council Report, an independent think tank that analyses and reports on the work of the UN Security Council. Ms Landgren served with the United Nations for over 35 years, and is the first woman to have headed three UN peace operations. She was until 2015 a UN Under-Secretary-General and head of the UN Mission in Liberia (UNMIL), a peacekeeping operation, and led UNMIL’s response to Ebola through the height of the epidemic. Prior to this, she led UN peace operations in Burundi and in Nepal. She was UNICEF’s first chief of child protection, in 1998–2008. With the UN Refugee Agency from 1980 to 1998, Ms Landgren served in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Eritrea, Singapore, the Philippines, India and at its headquarters in Geneva. Ms Landgren is a founding member of the Nordic Women Mediators network.

Marko Mihkelson

Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Estonian Parliament 

Twitter: @MarkoMihkelson

Kersti Kaljulaid

President of Estonia (2016-2021)

Twitter: @KerstiKaljulaid

H.E. Kersti Kaljulaid was President of Estonia in 2016–2021. Previously, she had served as a Member of the European Court of Auditors, advising Prime Minister Mart Laar and holding different top-level positions in energy, investment banking and the telecom sector. A genetic engineer and economist by education, she was a member of the Supervisory Board of the Estonian Genome Centre and Council Chair of the University of Tartu from 2012 to 2016. During her presidency, she was a vocal advocate of human rights, rule of law, freedom of speech and democracy. She is a desired speaker in the most prominent forums on the topics of digitalisation, economics, foreign and security policy. President Kaljulaid was the first Estonian to be featured in the Forbes World’s 100 Most Powerful Women. In 2021, she was appointed the first Global Advocate for Every Woman Every Child by the United Nations Secretary-General.

Åsa Regnér

Assistant Secretary-General and UN Women Deputy Executive Director

Twitter: @Regner_Asa

Ms Åsa Regnér has served as Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations and Deputy Executive Director of UN Women since May 2018. Ms Regnér served as Minister for Children, the Elderly and Gender Equality of Sweden in 2014–2018, where her focus was on achieving concrete results in the implementation of Swedish gender equality policies as well as a shift towards the prevention of violence against women and the involvement of men and boys in gender equality work. She has extensive experience in the area of gender equality and women’s empowerment, having held various leadership positions in government, non-governmental organisations and the United Nations. She has led important processes and campaigns as a leading advocate for feminism and gender equality in Sweden and beyond. She has built and managed strong partnerships with a range of key stakeholders, including women’s movements and civil society, both nationally and globally. She previously served as UN Women Country Director in Bolivia (2013–2014) and Secretary-General of Riksförbundet för sexuell upplysning, Swedish International Planned Parenthood Federation branch. She also served as Director of Planning, Ministry of Justice (2004–2006) and as Political Adviser in the Prime Minister’s Office (1999–2004). She began her career in women’s rights as a volunteer for a Swedish NGO in La Paz, Bolivia (1990–1991) and moved to the Ministry of Labour working on Gender and labour market issues for several years in the 1990s. Ms Regnér holds a master’s degree in Democratic Development from Uppsala University.

Minna-Liina Lind

Ambassador at Large for Human Rights and Migration of Estonia

Twitter: @MinnaLiinaLind

Ms Minna-Liina Lind was appointed Estonia’s first-ever Ambassador for Human Rights and Migration in August 2020. She has been dealing with UN and Human Rights issues throughout her career at the Estonian foreign service. She was the main expert when Estonia led the negotiations on creating UN Women in 2010. In her role as Deputy Ambassador to the UN between 2014 and 2018, Ms Lind was in charge of Estonia’s campaign for UN Security Council membership. During her tenure in New York, she also led the negotiations at the General Assembly on behalf of the like-minded ACT group on opening up the process of UN Secretary-General selection and paving the way to appointing the first female UN Secretary-General. On being appointed Ambassador for Human Rights, Ms Lind drafted Estonia’s first Human Rights Action Plan, which was approved by the Government in April 2021. She started working in the Legal Department of the Estonian Foreign Ministry in 2004 on obtaining her Master of Laws degree from Heidelberg University. She has twice been posted to the Estonian mission to the UN in New York. From 2010 to 2014, Ms Lind was Spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Stanislav Raščan

State Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Slovenia

State Secretary Dr Stanislav Raščan is a medical doctor and holds a master and doctorate degree in political science. A career diplomat, he has been employed at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs since 1994. From 1995 to 1999, he served in Tokyo as Deputy Head of Mission, and upon returning to Slovenia in 2000, he assumed the position of Secretary General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In 2002, he served a brief period as Chargé d’Affaires ad interim at the Slovenian Embassy in Tehran. In 2004, he was appointed Head of Department for Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Latin America and the Pacific, and in 2005, Director-General for Multilateral Affairs. In 2006, Dr Raščan was appointed Ambassador at the Permanent Representation of the Republic of Slovenia to the OSCE in Vienna. In 2012, he took over the helm of the Directorate for Economic Diplomacy as Director-General, and in 2015, became Head of the Department for Strategic Studies and Analyses. Until he was appointed State Secretary, he served as Head of the Department for Asia and Oceania. Since 2021, he has served as President of the Executive Board of the Centre for European Perspective (CEP) and President of the Managing Board of ITF Enhancing Human Security. Raščan has published over 150 articles, co-authored a number of books and written two monographs on international politics.

Martin Kimani

Permanent Representative of Kenya to the United Nations

Twitter: @AmbMKimani

H.E. Mr Martin Kimani, PhD, CBS, is Kenya’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York with the rank of Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary. He has recently served as the President’s Special Envoy for Countering Violent Extremism, as the Director of Kenya’s National Counter Terrorism Centre and in Strategic Initiatives in the Executive Office of the President. Previously, he served as Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Nairobi, as well as to the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the UN Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat). In the past 20 years, he has worked to a senior level in the global currency and bond markets, political risk advisory for underwriters and other corporates, and peace and security in the Horn of Africa and East Africa. Ambassador Kimani is a fellow of the African Leadership Initiative and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network. Mr Kimani holds a PhD in War Studies from King’s College London of the University of London.

Motohiro Tsuchiya

Professor at Keio University Graduate School of Media and Governance

Twitter: @taiyosfc

Dr Motohiro Tsuchiya is Vice-President for Global Engagement and Information Technology at Keio University and Professor at Keio University Graduate School of Media and Governance. He served as Dean of Faculty of Policy Management at Keio University from October 2019 to July 2021. He is also serving as guest editorialist of Nikkei since April 2019. He is a member of Space Security Division of the Committee on National Space Policy at the Cabinet Office. Dr Tsuchiya authored Intelligence and National Security (Tokyo: Keio University Press, 2007), Cyber Terror (Tokyo: Bungeishunju, 2012, in Japanese), Cyber Security and International Relations (Tokyo: Chikura Shobo, 2015), Cyber Great Game (Tokyo: Chikura Shobo, 2020) and co-authored Cybersecurity: Public Sector Threats and Responses (Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, 2012) and 40 other books. He earned his BA in political science, MA in international relations, and PhD in media and governance from Keio University.

Henrik Urdal

Director of the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO)

Twitter: @H_Urdal

Dr Henrik Urdal is Director and Research Professor at the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO). He is past Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Peace Research, and a former Research Fellow with the International Security Program at Harvard Kennedy School (2011–2012). Dr Urdal’s work on political demography has been published in leading international academic journals. He has been a consultant for international organisations such as the World Bank, the United Nations and USAID. Dr Urdal was part of a PRIO team producing one of the key background research papers for the World Bank/UNDP report Pathways for Peace. His research focuses on the impact of population and environmental change on armed conflict, including security implications of urbanisation, ‘youth bulges’ and climate change. He has worked extensively on global trends in armed conflict as past Director for the Conflict Trends project, a long-term collaborative effort between PRIO and the Norwegian MFA.

Marina Kaljurand

Member of the European Parliament

Twitter: @MarinaKaljurand

Sven Jürgenson

Permanent Representative of Estonia to the United Nations

H.E. Mr Sven Jürgenson has been Permanent Representative of the Republic of Estonia to the United Nations since August 2015. He graduated from the information processing department of Tallinn Polytechnic Institute and completed the diplomacy and consular affairs course at the International Institute of Public Administration in Paris in 1992. He joined the Estonian Foreign Service in 1991 and has worked at Estonian Embassies in Helsinki and Vienna. From 1998 to 2000, Sven Jürgenson was the Estonian Ambassador to the UN, and from 2000 to 2003 Jürgenson served as the Ambassador to the United States, Canada and Mexico. From 2003 to 2006, he was the undersecretary for political affairs of the Estonian Foreign Ministry and from 2006 to 2010 worked at the Chancellery of the President of Estonia as the foreign policy advisor. Most recently, from 2010 until August 2015, Sven Jürgenson was Estonia’s Ambassador to France a s well as Ambassador to Monaco from 2011 and Ambassador to Tunisia from 2014.