Research, ideas, and leadership for a more secure, peaceful world

Past Event
Seminar

Communicating the UN at a Time of Polarization

RSVP Required Harvard Faculty, Fellows, Staff, and Students

Join Melissa Fleming, Under-Secretary-General for Global Communications at the United Nations, as she explains the challenges of her role in an era of profound political, social and digital fragmentation and polarization. 
 
Ms. Fleming will outline the new approach she is bringing to UN communications – one that aims not just to inform the public of what the UN does, but to engage them to care and mobilize them for action. She will also explore the threats posed by misinformation, on COVID-19, climate change and so much more.
 
Erika Manouselis, Research and Administrative Manager at the Future of Diplomacy Project, will moderate this discussion.

This event is only open to members of the Harvard community.

Date: Time: - Location: Online
Melissa Fleming

ABOUT

Melissa Fleming

Melissa Fleming is Under-Secretary-General for Global Communications at the United Nations. Ms. Fleming previously served 10 years at the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) as its Head of Global Communications, and before that worked in senior communications roles for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. She is author of the book, A Hope More Powerful than the Sea, and host of the award-winning UN podcast, Awake at Night.

Erika Manouselis (moderator)

Erika Manouselis is the Research and Administrative Manager for the Belfer Center’s flagship research projects on diplomacy and international affairs chaired by Ambassador Nicholas Burns: the Future of Diplomacy Project and the Project on Europe and the Transatlantic Relationship.  Previously, she worked as an advisor and speechwriter at the Permanent Mission of Brazil to the United Nations from 2016-2017 where she helped Brazil with negotiations for the UN’s budgetary and administrative committee. She is interested in the intersection of history and foreign policy, and authored a Belfer Center report on “The Modern Roots of the Graveyard for Diplomats: The Tripartite Conference on Cyprus in 1955.”