• Security Council

    GEOPOLITICS

    Kashmir’s Long Tragedy Rears Its Head in the News and at the UN

    by  • September 5, 2018 • Asia, General Assembly, Geopolitics, Security Council, US Foreign Relations, US-UN Relations • 

    In his final months in office as United Nations high commissioner for human rights, the outspoken Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein did what no former holder of that office would or could do: he issued a blistering report on Indian abuses in the disputed territory of Kashmir. It is a story that Indian governments have long...

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    GEOPOLITICS

    Atrocity Crimes Are Being Committed by All Warring Parties in Yemen: UN Experts

    by  • August 29, 2018 • Geopolitics, Human Rights, Secretary-General, Security Council • 

    The numerous parties to the war in Yemen, which began in 2015, have perpetrated and continue to commit violations of international law by indiscriminately murdering civilians, blocking humanitarian-aid deliveries, arbitrarily detaining people and possibly torturing those imprisoned, recruiting child soldiers and raping women and men, according to a new report by a United Nations...

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    NIKKI HALEY WATCH

    Can Jane Holl Lute, a New UN Envoy, Work a Miracle on Cyprus?

    by  • August 21, 2018 • Nikki Haley Watch, Security Council, UN Peacekeeping, US Foreign Relations, US-UN Relations • 

    The newest person to venture into kick-starting talks between the Greek Cypriots and the Turkish Cypriots on the long-divided island of Cyprus in the Mediterranean is Jane Holl Lute. She is an American with a military and national-security background who has been assigned the task by the United Nations secretary-general, António Guterres. Since the...

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    P5 MONITOR

    The US and Iran: Playing With Fire

    by  • August 13, 2018 • P5 Monitor, Security Council, US Foreign Relations • 

    With the recent reimposition of its sanctions against Iran, the United States is clearly violating its obligations under the United Nations resolution that endorsed the Iran nuclear agreement. While the Security Council has taken note and Iran has formally responded, urging the UN “to keep the United States accountable,” no party to the agreement...

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    NIKKI HALEY WATCH

    Haley’s Midterm Report Card at the UN

    by  • August 2, 2018 • Nikki Haley Watch, Security Council, US Foreign Relations, US-UN Relations • 1 Comment

    The Trump administration has been in office 559 days and counting. Nikki Haley, a former Republican governor of South Carolina and now the American ambassador to the United Nations, has been in office since Jan. 25, 2017. Since her nomination, Haley has undergone two Congressional hearings, the first in January 2017 with the Senate...

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    SECURITY COUNCIL PRESIDENCY

    Britain’s Main Priority in the UN Security Council in August: Burma

    by  • August 1, 2018 • Security Council, Security Council Presidency • 

    Welcome to our new column, Security Council Presidency, providing insight into the United Nations Security Council member sitting in the rotating seat of the president every month. The column began in July, when Sweden was president, led by the country’s UN ambassador, Olof Skoog. For August, we profile Karen Pierce, Britain’s ambassador to the...

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    WORLDVIEWS

    Violence Against Women Worsens by the Day in the Congo

    by  • July 26, 2018 • Africa, Gender-Based Violence, Security Council, UN Peacekeeping, WORLDVIEWS • 

    Justine Bihamba

    The Democratic Republic of the Congo has been placed on the United Nations Security Council agenda for several decades, in one form or another through various peacekeeping missions. The Council regularly meets on the status of the Congo, with the most recent session occurring on July 26, 2018, concentrating on progress toward scheduled presidential and...

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    GEOPOLITICS

    Pompeo’s Visit to the UN Caps a Week of Dizzying Global Politics

    by  • July 20, 2018 • Geopolitics, Human Rights, Security Council, US Foreign Relations, US-UN Relations • 

    Capping a week of neck-wrenching U-turns by the president of the United States after his pro-Russia speech in Helsinki on Monday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met with the 15-member United Nations Security Council in New York on July 20 — to discuss North Korea. Pompeo and Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the...

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    P5 MONITOR

    The Congo: Tiptoeing Toward a New War?

    by  • July 9, 2018 • Africa, Human Rights, P5 Monitor, Security Council • 

    If President Joseph Kabila’s continued violations of his country’s constitutional term limits were not enough of a warning, the first paragraph of the latest report by United Nations experts on the Democratic Republic of the Congo sets the record straight, saying: “Armed actors continuously used the delay in the electoral process to promote acts...

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    SECURITY COUNCIL PRESIDENCY

    Sweden’s Priorities in the Security Council: Being Prepared, Including for the World Cup

    by  • July 5, 2018 • Climate and Environment, Security Council, Security Council Presidency • 

    Welcome to our new column, Security Council Presidency, providing insight into the United Nations Security Council member sitting in the rotating seat of the president every month, starting in July with Sweden and its ambassador, Olof Skoog. The column is meant to be an informative capsule of not only the country’s ambassador but also...

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    GEOPOLITICS

    In Hodeidah, the Norwegian Refugee Council Hangs On to Save Yemenis

    by  • June 20, 2018 • Geopolitics, Middle East, Secretary-General, Security Council, US Foreign Relations, US-UN Relations • 

    As the attack on Hodeidah, a major port in western Yemen on the Red Sea, moves into its second week, led by the coalition of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, the rest of the world seems to be sitting and watching the destruction. The Norwegian Refugee Council, an independent nongovernmental organization, has...

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    WORLDVIEWS

    The UN’s Emphasis on Prevention Could Use Lessons From the Case of Guinea

    by  • June 18, 2018 • Africa, Gender-Based Violence, Responsibility to Protect, Secretary-General, Security Council, WORLDVIEWS • 

    Historically neglected, gender-based violence is now becoming broadly recognized as a legitimate and urgent agenda item among the United Nations member nations, notably in the UN’s most powerful forum, the Security Council. But the future of the agenda is uncertain, as priorities remain unclear and inadequate methods for preventing sexual violence against women keep...

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    P5 MONITOR

    The Perils of Kim-Trump Diplomacy on the UN Security Council

    by  • June 10, 2018 • Nuclear Disarmament, P5 Monitor, Security Council, US Foreign Relations, US-UN Relations • 

    Could the Kim-Trump meeting in Singapore on Tuesday displace the United Nations Security Council’s mandate to regulate the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, as the United States succeeded in doing when it withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal? Chances of abolishing the UN sanctions regime on North Korea without the Council having the...

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    NIKKI HALEY WATCH

    Oh, Yes, France Is a Permanent Member of the UN Security Council Too

    by  • June 9, 2018 • Nikki Haley Watch, Security Council, US Foreign Relations, US-UN Relations • 

    The last few weeks have been rough for Nikki Haley, the ambassador of the United States to the United Nations. On June 1, she led the US delegation in submitting a draft Security Council resolution condemning the militant group Hamas for its perceived role in inciting violence by Gazans against Israel. Only the US...

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    NIKKI HALEY WATCH

    Nikki Haley’s Chief of Staff Is Leaving New York to Work for Her in D.C.

    by  • June 4, 2018 • Nikki Haley Watch, Security Council, US-UN Relations • 

    David Glaccum, the chief of staff for Nikki Haley, America’s envoy to the United Nations, is leaving the New York office to move to Washington, D.C., where he will apparently continue working for Haley as a senior adviser based in the State Department. His move will allow him to be closer to his family,...

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    GEOPOLITICS

    Why Israel Dropped Out of the UN Security Council Race: Not Enough Votes

    by  • May 28, 2018 • General Assembly, Geopolitics, Middle East, Security Council • 

    From the start, it was a closely watched contest pitting Germany, Belgium and Israel against one another for their regional bloc’s two seats in the next term on the United Nations Security Council. Israel has never held a seat on the Council, and as it celebrates its 70-year membership in the UN in 2018, the...

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    WORLDVIEWS

    The UN’s Cruz Report on Improving Peacekeepers’ Security Goes Too Far

    by  • May 20, 2018 • Security Council, UN Peacekeeping, WORLDVIEWS • 7 Comments

    Since 1999, the United Nations Security Council has consistently entrusted its peacekeeping operations with clear authority to use force beyond self-defense — primarily for the protection of civilians. To fulfill the mandate, the Council expects UN peacekeeping forces to take preventive as well as responsive actions; to proactively patrol the local communities; to project a...

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    GEOPOLITICS

    John Bolton Cracks the Whip on the UN Mission in Western Sahara

    by  • May 15, 2018 • Africa, Geopolitics, Middle East, Security Council, US Foreign Relations, US-UN Relations • 1 Comment

    The message was blunt and judgmental as the United States delivered its ultimatum on the future of the United Nations mission in Western Sahara: “MINURSO is a peacekeeping mission that should have finished its job a long time ago. This is a mission that began 27 years ago almost to the day. This was...

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    NIKKI HALEY WATCH

    Speaking Loudly Even While Wielding the Big Stick

    by  • April 15, 2018 • Disarmament, Middle East, Nikki Haley Watch, Peace and Security, Security Council, US Foreign Relations, US-UN Relations • 

    Whatever else came out of the latest American-led strikes on Syrian chemical weapon sites, it put on display rare signs of diplomatic skill on the part of the Trump administration, even if those signs first surfaced at the Pentagon rather than at the White House, the United Nations or Washington’s rudderless Department of State....

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    GEOPOLITICS

    Confronting Possible Gas Attacks in Syria, the UN Security Council Succumbs to Chaos

    by  • April 13, 2018 • Disarmament, Geopolitics, Middle East, Peace and Security, Secretary-General, Security Council, US Foreign Relations • 1 Comment

    In a week of reversals, semireversals and blatant backtracking by some of the most powerful countries on earth, diplomacy showed its head-spinning underside in the United Nations Security Council, as three Western allies — Britain, France and the United States — conveyed their outrage against Russia for its perceived role in allowing the Syrian...

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