This week, while the General Assembly met across town at the United Nations, world leaders ventured up to Morningside Heights to speak to students, staff, and faculty at Columbia University. Issues discussed included climate change, politics in South America, democracy in Europe, and the war in Ukraine, as well as advice for future leaders.
President Lee C. Bollinger presided over this World Leaders Forum, which he first established in 2003, calling it part of “a broader effort at Columbia over the past decades to be more international in our outlook and our physical presence, and to find ways to be more engaged with the major challenges facing our global society. It’s something we call the Fourth Purpose of the university, in addition to scholarship, teaching, and public service.”