To help me cope with my existential dread (and also provide incredible value to you, our listeners), Kerstin Leitner joined me on the podcast. Kerstin has 30 years of experience as a UN official, and she has lived in numerous places around the world, like Africa, China, and the United States. Today she lives in…
September 2023 is forecast to be heavy in summiteering, as already two summits and a ministerial meeting are scheduled to take place in the space of a few days, around the high-level “UN Week”, namely: an SDG Summit, another Climate Summit, and a Ministerial Meeting in preparation of the September 2024 Summit of the Future….
*Originally published on December 30, 2022 **Produced by Lynn Fries / GPEnewsdocs TRANSCRIPT LYNN FRIES: Hello and welcome. I’m Lynn Fries producer of Global Political Economy or GPEnewsdocs with guest Harris Gleckman. A recent symposium marking the 50th anniversary of Salvador Allende’s speech at the UNGA in 1972 delved into the topic of “Corporate Power: Then…
Two weeks from the finish line, 2022 can safely be said to have been a year of conflicts, tensions, and upheavals par excellence. The Russian invasion of Ukraine on 24 February may still be the darkest highlight of the year, but certainly not the only one. Some hopeful signs with ceasefires that held/are holding in…
The nuclear safety standards of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) do not contain guidance or recommendations in the context of warlike scenarios. Since the beginning of the war last February, several Ukrainian nuclear facilities have suffered or are suffering from the effects of military operations taking place in their vicinity. Such operations have taken…
ON THE OCCASION OF THE GENERAL DEBATE OF THE 77TH SESSION OF THE UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY by the former UN system staff members signing below In a couple of weeks, the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly will be opening, with world leaders flocking to New York for the “General Debate” high-level segment….
Seventy-seven years ago today, on 6 August 1945, the United States Airforce dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, instantly killing an estimated 70,000 people – a number that would grow to about 140,000 over the coming year as radiation sickness took its toll. The bomb dropped on Nagasaki only three days later raised the total…
In the midst of a sweltering summer in the Northern Hemisphere the news that is coming in is definitely going to blow the fuses off: more heat waves, droughts, forest fires, crop failures, energy shortages, old and new diseases, and war. And all this is happening in the mighty North that brings together, geographically at…
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UCNFCC), the world’s first climate change treaty, is 30 years old. It was adopted on 9 May 1992 and opened for signature at the Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro on 4 June 1992. Should the world be celebrating? Looking back Personally, I take…
Historically speaking we, humans, are known for our ability to move, for our ability to migrate and adapt to new environments whatever those may be. Recent technological and economic advances have increased dramatically our ability to travel. These factors are valuable to us as they promote cultural, linguistic, and even economic exchanges. However, for years,…
