Center Austria and the Austrian Marshall Plan Foundation presented the Tenth Annual Marshall Plan Lecture:
Dr. Peter Moser
Marshall Plan Chair and Diplomat in Residence
The University of New Orleans
E Pluribus Unum – A Road Map for a New Global Order?
When: March 10, 2010, 4:00 pm
Where: Earl K. Long LIbrary, Room 407 | UNO Lakefront Campus, New Orleans.
E Pluribus Unum – A Road Map for a New Global Order?
Modern technology, the recent communications revolution, growing economic interdependence are new challenges of global proportions affecting all nations. They increase the need for coordinated action by the international community. Whereas economic globalization is more dynamic and faster than the globalization of politics and social mind-sets, the lack of more effective institutional instruments to cope with the global challenges becomes more and more apparent.
Globalization has winners and losers within the international community, but also within each nation state. Single nations are caught in the dilemma of how to meet the needs and demands of their people and of how to cooperate on an international level.
Are old perceptions, national myths and ideologies still valid instruments? What is the position of main global players like the United States of America, the European Union and others when it comes to world economics, but also international security and foreign affairs?
Nation states remain the building blocks of the emerging new global order, but they have to adapt to its pressures and necessities. To overcome the dilemma of domestic politics and international cooperation the education of the people and their better understanding of history, the culture and the mentality of other nations and civilizations become more and more important. “Know your enemy” was the prescription for successful diplomacy and use of force until recently. “Know your partner” is indispensable for building effective institutional frameworks for international cooperation.
Dr. Peter Moser
Peter Moser is the 2009/2010 Marshall Plan Chair in Austrian and European Studies at the University of New Orleans teaches courses in European diplomatic history and the craft of diplomacy. He recently retired from the Austrian diplomatic service after a long and distinguished career in Austrian diplomacy.
He was born in Vienna in 1941 in the midst of World War II. After his graduation from high school, he attended the University of Vienna and graduated with a doctorate in juris prudence. He is a graduate of the Vienna Diplomatic Academy, the oldest professional diplomatic academy in the world. In 1967 he embarked on his career in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with first assignments in the cultural and economic departments, and as Chargé d’Affairs and Deputy Head of Embassy in Bulgaria (1972-76). He briefly served in the Cabinet Office of the Foreign Ministry before becoming deputy head of the Personnel Department.
In 1979 he moved into senior positions with his postings to Los Angeles as consul general (1979-85), and then as Austrian first resident Ambassador to the Republic of Korea. He returned to the central office in Vienna in 1989, filling a number of senior administrative positions, culminating in becoming Director General for Administration. In this position he was intimately involved in the logistics behind the first Austrian European Union Presidency in 1998 and chaired the boards for ambassadorial appointments and the recruitment examination system. He crowned his distinguished diplomatic career with his appointments as Ambassador to the United States (1999-2003) during the stormy season of the formation of the first Schűessel coalition government with the right-wing Austrian Freedom Party, and to Tokyo (2003-2006).