Since 2023, Switzerland has been serving as an elected member of the UN Security Council for the first time in history. In October 2024, two months before concluding its mandate, Switzerland held the Council's presidency for the second time. During our last lunch briefing, Prof. Lucile Maertens and Dr. Sara Hellmüller discussed what Switzerland has achieved during its two-year mandate, especially while acting as the President of the Council, and explored the specific contextual and institutional challenges it has encountered.
The discussion moderated by Dr. Margaux Pinaud also addressed the broader implications of Switzerland's membership and the critical roles of elected members in the current context. Prof. Lucile Maertens and Dr. Sara Hellmüller are co-investigators of a project that academically documents Switzerland’s first membership on the UN Security Council from 2023 to 2024 (funded by the Fondation pour l’Université de Lausanne). Their preliminary findings appear in this co-written analysis and in a forthcoming article for the Bulletin on Swiss Security Policy (CSS, ETH Zürich).