General Assembly

• June 24, 2022

This week, we focus on two crises in Africa: never-ending deadly setbacks of peacekeeping and the humanitarian needs on the continent. You are reading This Week @UN, summarizing the most pressing issues before the organization. The information is gathered from UN press briefings, PassBlue reporting and other sources. This week, we look at the …

Africa, Asia, Development, General Assembly, Governance, Humanitarian Aid, Secretary-General, Security Council, This Week @UN

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WORLDVIEWS

15 Months to Go: Will the World Make Something of the UN Summit of the Future?

Richard Ponzio and Nudhara Yusuf

• June 21, 2022

In September 2023 — a mere 15 months from now — the United Nations’ 193 member states are expected to convene a Summit of the Future during the General Assembly’s annual high-level week in New York City. At a series of thematic consultations held in February and March 2022 by the president of the …

General Assembly, Peace and Security, Secretary-General, Security Council, WORLDVIEWS

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Regional Rifts in Southeast Asia Stall Action on Myanmar as Atrocities Soar

Barbara Crossette

• June 19, 2022

Among governments and international organizations worldwide there is a refrain that the catastrophic collapse of Myanmar is a regional problem to be solved primarily by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. The 10-member group, known as Asean, remains deeply split, however, and the fissure seems to be hardening. On one side of the arguments …

Asia, General Assembly, Secretary-General

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THIS WEEK @UN

Trending UN News: Week Ending June 10

Damilola Banjo

• June 10, 2022

This week, our focus is on rising food crises worldwide as a result of several converging factors, including Russia’s war on Ukraine. You are reading This Week @UN, summarizing the most pressing issues before the organization. The information is gathered from UN press briefings, PassBlue reporting and other sources. This week, we look at …

General Assembly, Peace and Security, Security Council, This Week @UN

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WORLDVIEWS

US Secretary of State Blinken’s Homage to the UN

Stephen Schlesinger

• June 7, 2022

If there is a mantra for United States foreign policy under the Biden administration, it is the idea of a “rules-based international order.” Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in a major speech delivered at the Asia Society on May 26 on US-China relations, cited the phrase or variations of it 16 times in his …

General Assembly, Security Council, US Foreign Relations, US-UN Relations, WORLDVIEWS

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9,000 Miles Away, South Africa’s Economy Feels the Pain of Russia’s War in Ukraine

Nyasha Bhobo

• June 6, 2022

JOHANNESBURG — With no peace deal in sight to end Russia’s war in Ukraine, South Africa’s economy is feeling the pain from the conflict, about 9,000 miles away. Prices of grains, chicken, cooking oil and bread — mainstays of South Africa’s food economy — have shot up on the back of Russia’s invasion, which …

Africa, General Assembly, Peace and Security, Security Council

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THIS WEEK @UN

Trending UN News: Week Ending June 3

Damilola Banjo

• June 3, 2022

This week, our focus is on the continuing efforts of the United Nations to reduce civilian casualties in different pockets of unrest across the globe. You are reading This Week @UN, summarizing the most pressing issues before the organization. The information is gathered from UN press briefings, PassBlue reporting and other sources. This week, …

Africa, Disarmament, General Assembly, Humanitarian Aid, International Justice, Secretary-General, Security Council, This Week @UN

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WORLDVIEWS

A Just Peace for an Unjust War in Ukraine

Mona Ali Khalil

• May 29, 2022

Former United States President George W. Bush’s unwitting truth is as tragic as it is hypocritical. The “absence of checks and balances in Russia,” he said recently, has resulted in “the decision of one man to launch a wholly unjustified and brutal invasion of Iraq, I mean of the Ukraine. Iraq too.” While he …

General Assembly, Peace and Security, Security Council, WORLDVIEWS

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In a Rare Sign of Unity, the World Celebrates Cycling

Deborah Baldwin

• May 25, 2022

There are not many things that United Nations members can all agree on, but who can contest the glories of the humble bike? With its narrow frame, tiny carbon footprint and ample contributions to health and well-being, the bike has few enemies. Which helps explain how, against all odds, a Polish-American cycling enthusiast named …

Cities, Climate Change, General Assembly

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THIS WEEK @UN

Trending UN News: Week Ending May 13

Damilola Banjo

• May 13, 2022

This week, we focus on how the UN is further rallying support to combat the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine and the widespread condemnation against the killing of Al Jazeera’s reporter in Palestine. You are reading This Week @UN, summarizing the most pressing issues before the organization. The information is gathered from UN press briefings, …

General Assembly, Human Rights, Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Secretary-General, Security Council, This Week @UN

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WORLDVIEWS

Liechtenstein’s ‘Veto Initiative’ Wins Wide Approval at the UN. Will It Deter the Big Powers?

Ben Donaldson

• April 26, 2022

A major effort to reform the use of the veto in the United Nations Security Council came to fruition in a rare move on April 26, when the General Assembly adopted a resolution by consensus to raise the political cost of exercising the veto by the five permanent members of the Council: Britain, China, …

General Assembly, WORLDVIEWS

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WORLDVIEWS

Making the Most of the 2023 UN Summit of the Future

María Fernanda Espinosa and Danilo Turk

• April 20, 2022

Combined with the growing fears of irreversible climate change and emerging new Covid-19 variants and subvariants, stands an ominous “third C”: conflict between Russia and Ukraine, which has triggered a refugee crisis on a scale not witnessed in Europe since the end of World War II. At the same time, civil wars in Africa …

Climate Change, General Assembly, WORLDVIEWS

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WOMEN AS CHANGEMAKERS

Meet Comfort Ero, the First Black Woman to Lead the International Crisis Group

Damilola Banjo

• April 3, 2022

Comfort Ero knew that her appointment as the president and chief executive of the International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based think tank working to prevent wars, would be arduous. But taking up the role in December, two months before Russia invaded Ukraine, is not exactly what she envisaged. “It is a reminder of what it …

Africa, General Assembly, Peace and Security, Security Council, Women as Changemakers

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India’s Stance on Ukraine and Where Modi’s Geopolitics Go Next

Barbara Crossette

• March 13, 2022

In India, a country of probing and often rambunctious political debate, another chapter in the “who we are” story has started in the wake of what President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine is calling a Russian “war of annihilation” of his country. Speculation about India’s international posture runs on two separate, parallel tracks. Globally, India, …

Asia, General Assembly, Security Council

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WORLDVIEWS

United Nations: The Last Thing Putin Wants

Mark Malloch-Brown

• February 28, 2022

Putin’s decision to send Russian troops into Ukraine was a flagrant breach of the most fundamental rules of interstate relationships. It was not only an unprovoked attack against an independent sovereign nation, and by an unfree country on a free one, it was also a major offensive strike against the heart of the United …