The 39th ACNUS Annual Meeting took place last 3rd July 2026 in Lisbon under the motto “Multilateralism under Challenge and the Future of the Pact”. This meeting examined how multilateral governance can be maintained despite challenges from major and emerging powers, continuing armed conflicts, humanitarian emergencies, overheated planet, and other crisis.
The Academic Council on the United Nations System (ACUNS) unites people who are active in the work and study of the UN, to better understand and address the most pressing global issues of our time. ACUNS was established in 1987 by a group of concerned scholars at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, USA. They envisioned a professional association that would unite students, scholars, advisers, practitioners, and policy makers focused on evidence-based analysis of the UN system. Since then, five universities have hosted ACUNS. In 2020, ACUNS became an independent nonprofit organization, providing a durable foundation for future development. The ACUNS secretariat is currently hosted at Georgetown University. ACUNS fosters analysis and debate about major international challenges. ACUNS increases the accessibility of the UN system to scholars and facilitates the development of new scholarships about the UN and international affairs.
Professor Maria João Rodrigues participated in the plenary session “New Leadership at the United Nations”.