Geopolitics

• December 31, 2019

Once again, 2019 marked incredible upheaval and change across the world, just as 2018 did so universally, signaled by the continued rise in nationalism and revolts by women against repression and violence in their daily lives. Reporting on how United Nations member states — all 193 of them — acted in 2019 was a …

Gender Violence, Geopolitics, Human Rights, US Foreign Relations

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GEOPOLITICS

China’s UN Playground & Talking Gender With the UN’s Rosemary DiCarlo: Our Latest Episode

Stéphanie Fillion and Kacie Candela

• December 23, 2019

This year was a big one for China, and 2020 is likely to be much the same — if not more intense, given the range of issues involving the United States and far beyond. For our last episode of the year, UN-Scripted looks at how China’s rise internationally is reflected at the United Nations. …

Africa, Asia, Geopolitics, Security Council, UN Special Envoys

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GEOPOLITICS

Russia in Africa and Frank Talk on Feminist Foreign Policies: Our Latest Podcast Episode

Stéphanie Fillion and Kacie Candela

• November 20, 2019

African summits may be in vogue worldwide, and Russia’s recent summit in Sochi in late October was no exception. A PassBlue correspondent, Joe Penney, traveled to the Black Sea resort to report on President Vladimir Putin’s pitch to African leaders, as he promoted a second African independence, this time a financial one, with offers …

Africa, Gender Violence, Geopolitics, US Foreign Relations

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GEOPOLITICS

Of Oil and Kalashnikovs: At the First Russia-Africa Summit, Putin Makes Power Plays

Joe Penney

• October 28, 2019

SOCHI, Russia — As the Turkish presidential plane carried President Recep Tayyip Erdogan across the Black Sea from Sochi, Russia, back to Ankara last week, dozens of African heads of state arrived in this resort city for the inaugural Russia-Africa Summit the next morning. During two days at a convention center in the Olympic …

Africa, Geopolitics, Security Council, US Foreign Relations

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GEOPOLITICS

The Moment to End Turkey’s Other War, in Cyprus, Is Fading Fast

Stéphanie Fillion

• October 24, 2019

Anywhere from the capital of Nicosia, day and night, Greek Cypriots can see a giant flag painted into the mountains in the north, in a separate region that calls itself the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. It is an area that is recognized only by Turkey and isolated internationally. From the Greek side of …

Geopolitics, Secretary-General, Syria

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GEOPOLITICS

Trump Nominates the Current UN Envoy as Ambassador to Egypt

Dulcie Leimbach

• April 12, 2019

Just days after President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt met with President Trump in the White House, receiving an effusive reception, Trump nominated Jonathan R. Cohen, the acting permanent representative of the United States to the United Nations, as ambassador to Egypt. Cohen, who has been a Foreign Service officer since 1986, is from …

Geopolitics, Middle East, Security Council, US Foreign Relations, US-UN Relations

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GEOPOLITICS

Afghan Migrants Flee Iran as US Sanctions Damage Iran’s Economy

Sonah Lee-Lassiter

• February 18, 2019

After fleeing violence and unemployment in their home country for the relative stability of neighboring Iran, hundreds of thousands of undocumented Afghans are now returning home. The mass reverse migration is taking place just as the United States, eager to withdraw from Afghanistan, holds its most concerted peace talks with the Taliban in years. …

Asia, Geopolitics, Migration, Terrorism, US Foreign Relations

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GEOPOLITICS

As His Country Wages War, President Hadi of Yemen Still Travels to US for Health Care

Dulcie Leimbach

• December 31, 2018

CLEVELAND, Ohio — On the main drag of Euclid Avenue in this Midwestern city sprawls the main campus of the Cleveland Clinic, the renowned hospital that attracts an estimated 2.5 million patients nationwide and abroad, including from the Middle East. That includes President Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi of Yemen, who has heart troubles and …

Geopolitics, Middle East, US Foreign Relations

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GEOPOLITICS

The US, Reversing Course on Cluster Bombs, Is Testing New Ones in Israel

Stéphanie Fillion

• December 28, 2018

TEL AVIV — Every day in some provinces of Vietnam, the simple act of walking can be deadly, as people risk stepping on unexploded ordnances, remnants from America’s war there that ended more than 40 years ago. The United States dropped 14 million tons of explosive devices during the war in Vietnam as well …

Disarmament, Geopolitics, Middle East, US Foreign Relations

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GEOPOLITICS

As Nicaragua Slides Deeper Into Dictatorship, Other Nations Grow Alarmed

Barbara Crossette

• December 26, 2018

In a rebuke to President Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua on Dec. 21, governments of 14 democratic nations in Europe, the United States, Chile and Australia condemned the closing, banning or expulsion of civil-society organizations working on rights and governance issues in Nicaragua. The censure came as violence is again being used against Ortega’s critics. …

Geopolitics, Human Rights, Latin America

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GEOPOLITICS

Trump Wants a New ‘Liberal’ World Order, Pompeo Tells Europe

Barbara Crossette

• December 6, 2018

They call it the “Trump effect” and it is permeating and weakening support for numerous international agreements still in their formative stages. For governments, diplomats and civil society around the world, accustomed to bombastic outbursts from Donald Trump, American policy appears to be consolidating into more than ad hoc attacks on efforts to tackle …

Geopolitics, US Foreign Relations, US-UN Relations

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GEOPOLITICS

The US Is Driving the New Talks on Western Sahara, Involving Morocco and Algeria

Stéphanie Fillion

• December 2, 2018

Horst Koehler, a former German president who has been the United Nations special envoy for Western Sahara since last year, is bringing the parties to the longstanding conflict over that region to a roundtable meeting in Geneva soon. Koehler expressed his intent last summer to bring all the relevant players together by the end …

Africa, Geopolitics, Security Council, US Foreign Relations, US-UN Relations

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GEOPOLITICS

Pressures Mount for UN to Create a Probe Into Khashoggi Murder

Barbara Crossette

• November 19, 2018

Secretary-General António Guterres is now the focus of concerted demands for the United Nations to establish an independent international tribunal to investigate the brutal murder of the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the country’s consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2. International action has been stymied amid changing accounts from the Saudis, uncertainty over which …

Geopolitics, Secretary-General, US Foreign Relations

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GEOPOLITICS

Striking a Better Balance in the Newest UN Peacekeeping Reforms

Maria Luisa Gambale

• October 4, 2018

Just days before the United Nations held a meeting with heads of state and foreign ministers on Secretary-General António Guterres’s Action for Peacekeeping initiative, the UN Security Council unanimously adopted Resolution 2436 on peace operations, on Sept. 21. Drafted by the United States, the resolution is the result of collaboration between Council members and …

Geopolitics, UN Peacekeeping, US Foreign Relations, US-UN Relations

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GEOPOLITICS

Nations Face an Era of Chaos as Trump Offends the World at the UN

Barbara Crossette

• October 3, 2018

The UN audience could only gasp when Donald Trump made his stormy debut in the United Nations General Assembly in 2017 as president of the United States. This year they laughed in his face. The gap between the US and the rest of the world has demonstrably widened under the Trump administration, and this …