“A week is a long time in politics,” as former British Prime Minister Harold Wilson famously remarked. The first two weeks of March 2025 have felt endless, marked by political shifts, surprises, and moments that could shape the future for decades to come. The U.S. initially paused military aid to Ukraine, raising concerns over the…
With all that’s been going on in the world lately, I felt the need to express myself in a manner that is safe, controlled, and organized. While that may sound obvious, it really isn’t, not in the era of ‘fast food’ information that is sweeping the younger generations in which I belong. When it comes…
The European Union has just witnessed a strong surge in support for far-right and nationalist parties in the June 2024 EU Parliament elections. Parties such as France’s National Rally, Germany’s Alternative for Germany, and Italy’s Brothers of Italy, have all gained sweeping victories in the EU elections. This comes after months of speculation about the…
In a few days’ time, high up in the Swiss mountains, where the glaciers are melting faster than ever before, there will be a “peace conference” of the most ambitious kind. It won’t be about climate change in the literal sense of the term but drastic climate change it is supposed to achieve. A conflict…
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has long created an image of herself as being a “champion” of the Italian far-right when it comes to issues of migration. Having campaigned and won, in part, because of her harsh rhetoric on immigration in the 2022 Italian general election, Meloni has since found it difficult to deliver on her…
H.E. The President of the GA* Ambassador Dennis Francis UN New York Your Excellency, As a former UN staff member I participate in an informal Peacemaking Reflection Group (PRG), which follows from our respective locations and situations the work of the UN. Members of the Group welcome and would like to thank you for…
It is broadly accepted that business as usual is not enough to effectively address the urgent global crises confronting humanity today, which range from wars of the traditional, geopolitical kind in Ukraine, Gaza, Yemen, Sudan and many other places to non-military threats like climate change, pandemics, food insecurity, inequalities and a self-serving global financial system….
Those who believe in the need for a stronger and more efficient UN are increasingly concerned about its future. The whole humanity should be concerned. The horizon shows growing selfish nationalisms and arms race, no appetite for more multilateral cooperation, and in particular a paralysed Security Council. While in the UN in New York pessimism…
Quality of life, access to clean water, basic sanitation, decent living conditions, and good education remain far from the reality of the population. In October 2016, with the sanction, by the President of the Republic, of Decree No. 8.892 of October 27, 2016, Brazil officially adopted the 2030 Agenda together with other UN member states,…
It has been a hot, unbearable summer in the Northern Hemisphere. Wherever the temperatures are not breaking new records and the forest fires are not filling the air with suffocating smoke and other pollutants it is the floods that are hitting the high mark, including in places where water is becoming worryingly scarce over time….
