The Lawfare Podcast: The United Nations and the Coronavirus Crisis

Jen Patja, Scott R. Anderson, Pamela Falk, Richard Gowan

Tuesday, April 7, 2020, 12:00 PM

Published by The Lawfare Institute
in Cooperation With

The devastating effects of the coronavirus COVID-19 are being felt in nearly every corner of the world, with little regard for national borders or boundaries. In many ways, this makes it the exact sort of transnational threat that the United Nations is supposed to help address, yet the response across various U.N. institutions has been inconsistent at best. To understand how the United Nations is responding to the coronavirus crisis and why, Scott R. Anderson spoke with two people who know it like few others: U.N. Resident Correspondent and CBS News Analyst Pamela Falk, and U.N. Director for the International Crisis Group Richard Gowan.

Jen Patja

Jen Patja is the editor and producer of the Lawfare Podcast and Rational Security. She currently serves as the Co-Executive Director of Virginia Civics, a nonprofit organization that empowers the next generation of leaders in Virginia by promoting constitutional literacy, critical thinking, and civic engagement. She is the former Deputy Director of the Robert H. Smith Center for the Constitution at James Madison's Montpelier and has been a freelance editor for over 20 years.

Scott R. Anderson

S_R_Anders

Scott R. Anderson is a fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution and a Senior Fellow in the National Security Law Program at Columbia Law School. He previously served as an Attorney-Adviser in the Office of the Legal Adviser at the U.S. Department of State and as the legal advisor for the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, Iraq.

Pamela Falk

Pamela Falk, a U.N. Resident Correspondent, is the CBS News Foreign Affairs Analyst based at the United Nations. A member of the Council on Foreign Relations, she served as U.S. Congress Staff Director to the subcommittee of the Committee on Foreign Affairs. She received her J.D. from Columbia University School of Law and her Ph.D. from New York University. Dr. Falk has taught International Law and International Organizations at Columbia University and is the author/editor of six books on international relations.