On Nov 22, Special Lecture by UN Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Jean Pierre Francois Renaud Lacroix was held at Yotsuya Campus No.2 BLDG Room 309 co-hosted by UN Information Center in Tokyo. The lecture by Mr. Lacroix who contributed in many important political and diplomatic affairs for over 25 years attracted more than 100 participants including students and faculty members of Sophia University and Other institutions as well as government officials including Former UN Under-Secretary-General Yasushi Akashi.

In his lecture Mr.Lacroix introduced 14 missions of UN Peacekeeping at first. Then he addressed the biggest and the most challenging missions taking place in those four nations in Africa: Congo, Mali, South Sudan and Central Africa Republic. These countries suffer not only from internal conflicts but issues with terrorisms, wide range of illegal activities including rapes and massacre by armed groups, destruction of environment. In addition political complexity as well as outbreak of epidemic such as Ebola makes missions in these areas very difficult and dangerous to proceed. Mentioning the unfortunate fact the biggest number for casualties relating PKO marked last year in 25 years, Mr. Lacroix emphasized in order to reach bring solutions cooperation of neighboring African countries are required. He is also alarmed by current divide of UN Security Council which has great impacts on PKO, addressing that understanding and unity of global communities are also crucial in order to make success in PKO missions.

After his lecture moderated by Professor Yosuhiro Ueki of Faculty of Global Studies, an active discussion took place regarding present and future of PKO with many questions from enthused students, faculty members and experts of international corporations.