Online Program Enrolling Now - Seton Hall - United Nations Institute for Training and Research
Online Program Enrolling Now - Seton Hall - United Nations Institute for Training and Research

BLUE SMOKE: A monthly column, from PassBlue and UNA–UK, spotlighting senior appointments at the UN

Stephen Schlesinger

Stephen Schlesinger is the author of three books, including "Act of Creation: The Founding of The United Nations," which won the 2004 Harry S. Truman Book Award. He is a senior fellow at the Century Foundation in New York City and the former director of the World Policy Institute at the New School (1997-2006) and former publisher of the quarterly magazine, The World Policy Journal. In the 1970s, he edited and published The New Democrat Magazine; was a speechwriter for the Democratic presidential candidate George McGovern; and later was the weekly columnist for The Boston Globe's "The L't'ry Life." He wrote, with Stephen Kinzer, "Bitter Fruit," a book about the 1954 CIA coup in Guatemala.

Thereafter, he spent four years as a staff writer at Time Magazine. For 12 years, he served as New York State Governor Mario Cuomo's speechwriter and foreign policy adviser. In the mid 1990s, Schlesinger worked at the United Nations at Habitat, the agency dealing with cities.

Schlesinger received his B.A. from Harvard University, a certificate of study from Cambridge University and a J.D. from Harvard Law School. He lives in New York City.

LEAVE A COMMENT
It was all over in a day. The Wagner chieftain Yevgeny Prigozhin’s rebellion against Vladmir Putin, over his dissatisfaction with the regular Russian army’s failures in Ukraine, collapsed so quickly that the United Nations Security Council, the UN General…

LEAVE A COMMENT

 
LEAVE A COMMENT
After a year of the Ukrainian conflict, President Vladimir Putin remains in power in Russia. This is impressive, considering his multiple setbacks on the battlefield, over 200,000 casualties among Russian troops, hefty sanctions on his country’s economy, his nation’s…

LEAVE A COMMENT

 
LEAVE A COMMENT
Over the last few months, there has been a lot of loose talk from President Joseph Biden and others comparing the Ukrainian crisis with the 1962 Cuban missile crisis. Lately, that talk has died away. There may be many…

LEAVE A COMMENT

 
LEAVE A COMMENT
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres started out wobbly on the Ukrainian crisis. In the days leading up to the Feb. 24 Russian attack on Ukraine, he remained on the sidelines. He was apparently unconvinced that the Russians would invade…

LEAVE A COMMENT

 
LEAVE A COMMENT
If there is a mantra for United States foreign policy under the Biden administration, it is the idea of a “rules-based international order.” Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in a major speech delivered at the Asia Society on May…

LEAVE A COMMENT

 
LEAVE A COMMENT
Vladimir Putin published an essay last year stating that Russians and Ukrainians were “one people.” He wrote: “I am confident that true sovereignty of Ukraine is possible only in partnership with Russia.” Thirteen years earlier, in a 2008 meeting…

LEAVE A COMMENT

 
LEAVE A COMMENT
The United Nations has been widely criticized for failing to stop the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Critics point out that Russia has vetoed every action in the Security Council to stymie or end the Russian attack. Ukrainian leader Volodymyr…

LEAVE A COMMENT

 
LEAVE A COMMENT
It is long overdue for United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres to intervene more forcefully in Russia’s war on Ukraine and use his good offices to try to forge a cease-fire and work out a final settlement on this nightmarish…

LEAVE A COMMENT

 
LEAVE A COMMENT
President Vladimir Putin is now 69 years old and he has been in office for almost 22 years, so he is starting to face his mortality: witness his two-year effort to isolate himself from Covid and holding meetings at…

LEAVE A COMMENT

 
LEAVE A COMMENT
President Joe Biden has brought back an era of diplomatic normalcy to the United Nations in his first year in office. After the often-raucous and unpredictable four years of the Trump administration’s relations with the UN, Biden and his…

LEAVE A COMMENT

 
LEAVE A COMMENT
One of America’s greatest supporters of the United Nations, Ambassador William vanden Heuvel, died on June 15 in New York City at age 91. A son of European immigrants, vanden Heuvel grew up in the upstate city of Rochester,…

LEAVE A COMMENT

 
LEAVE A COMMENT
While the United Nations focuses fitfully on its own long string of refugee problems, President Joe Biden has tapped Vice President Kamala Harris to resolve the problems of migration at the United States-Mexico border. There are legitimate reasons for…

LEAVE A COMMENT

 
LEAVE A COMMENT
Brian Urquhart, who spent most of his adult life in service to the United Nations, died on Saturday, Jan. 2, at his home in Tyringham, Mass., in the Berkshires, where he retired after serving as one of the most notable…

LEAVE A COMMENT

 
LEAVE A COMMENT
As President-elect Joe Biden finds his footing in foreign affairs, one of his foremost challenges will be re-engaging with the United Nations. So far, he has said little about the organization, but he has just appointed a new UN…

LEAVE A COMMENT

 
LEAVE A COMMENT
After President Trump’s nearly four years in office, we still do not have a good answer as to why the president has repeatedly deferred to Vladimir Putin on major issues. This is a central question that we face as…

LEAVE A COMMENT

 
UNGA78: A quiz from PassBlue
Online Program Enrolling Now - Seton Hall - United Nations Institute for Training and Research

THIS WEEK'S MOST POPULAR

Don't Miss a Story:

Subscribe to PassBlue

Sign up to get the smartest news on the UN by email, joining readers across the globe.​

We respect your privacy and take protecting it seriously​