Security Council

Despite Common Rejection of Trump’s Mideast Plan, Some Hope to Restart Talks

• February 11, 2020

A few days after Jared Kushner, President Trump’s adviser and son-in-law, met with United Nations Security Council members offsite in New York to sell the United States’ Mideast deal for peace, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas came to the Council to vehemently oppose it. While Abbas’s criticisms were echoed by most members of the Council, …

Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Middle East, Security Council, US Foreign Relations

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Will Trump’s ‘Vision’ Shake Up the Middle East?

Irwin Arieff

• February 3, 2020

When is a peace plan not a peace plan? Look no further than Donald Trump’s cynically timed initiative to end the decades-long conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. If a breakthrough does result, it will be in spite of itself. Released in late January after three years lurking in the shadows, it would jettison decades …

Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Security Council, US Foreign Relations

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As Kenya and Djibouti Fight Over a UN Security Council Seat, China Pops Up

Maurizio Guerrero

• January 24, 2020

Djibouti is vying with Kenya to win an elected seat in the United Nations Security Council for the 2021-22 term among the African bloc. The candidacy contest for the current open seat has revealed a rare open disagreement between African nations that is linked to China’s control in parts of the continent. The African …

Africa, Security Council

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The Topic Was the UN Charter, but the Backdrop Was a Just-Averted US-Iran War

Dulcie Leimbach

• January 9, 2020

Six days after the killing of Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani of Iran by the United States and high-wire threats sent between President Trump and top officials of Iran, the 15 members of the United Nations Security Council and other nations finally had a chance to speak about the fight in an open forum. As …

Secretary-General, Security Council, US Foreign Relations, US-UN 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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At the UN, Scrooge Haunts the Holiday Season

Dulcie Leimbach

• December 20, 2019

In this season of giving, the United States delegation offered free bourbon from Kentucky to the media and is splurging on a holiday party paid for by Kelly Knight Craft, the US ambassador, while in more serious business at the United Nations, the Russians not only held up a vote for one day regarding …

LGBT, Security Council, US Foreign Relations, US-UN Relations

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WORLDVIEWS

Rape Prosecution Must Drive the New Rohingya Genocide Court Case

Susan Hutchinson

• November 25, 2019

The recent case lodged by The Gambia with the International Court of Justice against Myanmar’s persecution of the Rohingya is the first time that rape will be prosecuted as genocide at the court, which is based in The Hague. The case has the potential to enhance feminist international law, while reinforcing the need to …

International Justice, Myanmar, Security Council, WORLDVIEWS

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Destination Kentucky: An Unusual Choice for Kelly Knight Craft’s Security Council Trip

Stéphanie Fillion

• November 18, 2019

While most countries use their presidency in the United Nations Security Council to visit war zones and pivotal peacekeeping missions around the globe, the United States ambassador, Kelly Knight Craft, is taking her counterparts to her home state of Kentucky in December. The Security Council will be traveling to what is often called the …

Security Council, US Foreign Relations, US-UN 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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The UN Can Do Much More to Resolve Khashoggi’s Murder, Says Agnès Callamard

Stéphanie Fillion

• October 2, 2019

Exactly a year after Jamal Khashoggi, the Saudi-born, American-based journalist, was murdered in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, the United Nations’ special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Agnès Callamard, remains categorical: UN Secretary-General António Guterres can and should do more about the murder, and so should member states. “I am asking the …

Human Rights, Journalists, Middle East, Security Council

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O, Canada, Where Are You at the #UNGA?

Stéphanie Fillion

• September 25, 2019

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has made a point of bringing Canada back to the international stage at the United Nations to win a coveted nonpermanent seat on the Security Council for the 2021-22 term. But amid Trudeau’s re-election campaign and an international scandal around his use of blackface, Canada has sent a low-level delegation …

General Assembly, Security Council

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Where’s Kelly Knight Craft? She Is Neither in Ottawa Nor at the UN

Irwin Arieff

• August 26, 2019

Donald Trump must have known just what he was getting into when he named Kelly Knight Craft to be the United States ambassador to the United Nations. But does Knight Craft understand the humiliating position the president is putting her into? Knight Craft, the soft-spoken wife of a billionaire coal executive from Kentucky, demonstrates …

Secretary-General, Security Council, The Trump Years

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Who Is Kelly Knight Craft? A Podcast to Get to Know the New US Ambassador to the UN

Stéphanie Fillion and Kacie Candela

• August 21, 2019

She calls herself a homemaker, a philanthropist and a consultant, but who, exactly, is Kelly Knight Craft, the newly confirmed United States ambassador to the United Nations? This week, UN-Scripted, PassBlue’s new podcast series, features veteran journalist and PassBlue columnist Irwin Arieff, who describes how Knight Craft will handle all the hot files at …

Security Council, The Trump Years, US-UN Relations

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Pompeo Finds Little Appetite at the UN for His Iran Strategy

Dulcie Leimbach

• August 20, 2019

In the middle of a muggy August afternoon in New York, the United Nations Security Council gathered once more to figure out how to “maintain peace and security” in the Middle East. But the recurring topic always leaves conversations wide open for interpretation by the Council’s 15 members. The concept by Poland as Council …

Middle East, Nuclear Disarmament, Security Council, US Foreign Relations, US-UN Relations

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Kashmir May Be an Old Crisis at the UN, but the World Is Now Riveted

Barbara Crossette

• August 19, 2019

A familiar refrain often heard when the burgeoning crisis in Kashmir rises to the top of the news is that this is an old story from long ago; we have moved on. The United Nations is discovering, however, that there is less tolerance for indifference since India’s decrees on Aug. 5-6 to singlehandedly remake …