The international order is changing before our eyes. Great-power rivalry is once again dominating global politics. Strategic competition increasingly overshadows cooperation. International law is applied inconsistently, if at all. Trust in multilateral institutions is weakening. The temptation is to conclude that the age of effective multilateralism is drawing to a close. That would be a…
The process is underway to choose the new UN Secretary-General. Candidates have been declared and hearings held. With Security Council deliberations pending, the situation is revealing of the condition of the international system, and the distance between what that system claims to be and what it has become. Today, the questions about who is best…
The United Nations Security Council was designed to stop the world’s worst fires. Too often, it has become the arsonist’s best friend. From Rwanda to Syria to Ukraine, the Council’s five permanent members, China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States, have used or threatened the veto to stall action while civilians burned….
As customary, the General Assembly of the United Nations (UNGA) is opening its new regular session in the second half of September. World leaders are converging on New York for their High-level Week’s multitude of events starting today, 22 September. Expect a series of grandiose monologues of Presidents, Kings, Prime Ministers, Foreign Ministers or other…
20 January 2025 is not just any inauguration day for just any new US President. All initial signs are that Donald Trump’s inauguration as the 47th US President will go down in history as a moment of major change, a point of departure and discontinuity, a quantum leap, perhaps a reason to reset the calendar…
Those of us worried about the state of the world and the explosive convergence of crises of military and non-military nature, cannot but be increasingly concerned by the expediency and brinkmanship demonstrated on a daily basis by countries and individual leaders, instead of advancing real solutions to the crises at hand. One such example is…
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…
The effects of climate change usually fall heavily on marginalized populations, including millions of persons with disabilities (PWDs) worldwide, especially those living in rural areas and poor communities. Almost 13 years ago, at COP16 of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the 2010 Cancun Agreements identified PWDs as disproportionally affected by the climate…
As we observe International Women’s Day, 8 March 2023, and CSW67 (Commission on the Status of Women, Session 67) is taking place, with UN Women continuing to run local programs worldwide, one crucial question remains: What women? To whom is the UN talking? The UN’s theme for 2023 is “DigitALL: Innovation and technology for gender…
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….