Terrorism

• November 2, 2022

Ambassador Harold Agyeman, Ghana’s permanent representative to the United Nations, said the jury was still out on the use of sanctions to bring Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, to heel over his decision to challenge the sovereignty of Ukraine. With Russia pulling the plug on the Black Sea grain deal recently — then rejoining it, …

Africa, Climate Change, Security Council Presidency, Terrorism, UN Peacekeeping

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Day 3, UN General Assembly’s Big Week: Africa Wants a Permanent Seat in the Security Council

Damilola Banjo

• September 22, 2022

Many African leaders who spoke at the United Nations General Assembly so far seem to all want the same thing: a permanent seat at the Security Council table. “Africa has waited long enough and will not wait any longer,” Ali Bongo Ondimba, Gabon’s president, said to the gathering on Sept. 21. The continent of …

Africa, General Assembly, Security Council, Terrorism

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UN Report Fails to Recognize Major Child Abductions in Parts of Nigeria

Damilola Banjo

• August 1, 2022

LAGOS, Nigeria — The United Nations verified the abduction of 4,278 children in 21 countries last year in its recent annual report on children and armed conflict, but it failed to acknowledge widespread kidnappings throughout northwest and north-central Nigeria that were recorded by one of its own agencies in 2021. Almost a quarter of …

Africa, Child Soldiers, Gender Violence, Secretary-General, Terrorism

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WORLDVIEWS

Afghan Women Must Be Central to Decision-Making on Global Aid to the Country

Margot Wallström and Susana Malcorra

• November 4, 2021

The Taliban are back in power in Afghanistan, and the hard-won gains women have made in the country are at risk. The situation is dire for all Afghans. The country is on the brink of starvation, and in recognition of this urgent need, more than $1 billion has been pledged to provide humanitarian assistance …

Gender Violence, Human Rights, Terrorism, WORLDVIEWS

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A US Lawyer Who Has Worked With Gitmo Detainees Details Her Journey Into a ‘Kafkaesque’ World

Clair MacDougall

• October 11, 2021

As a lawyer, Beth Jacob has represented both victims of the 9/11 attacks and the men imprisoned in Guantánamo Bay suspected of committing terrorism against the United States. A New Yorker now living in Washington, D.C., her Guantánamo clients have ranged from artists who make delicately crafted model ships, like Moath al-Alwi, and writers …

International Justice, Terrorism, US Foreign Relations

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SECURITY COUNCIL PRESIDENCY

Kenya Is Taking the Security Council to Mali and Niger to Assess Their Problems of Terrorism

Stéphanie Fillion

• October 4, 2021

In October, the United Nations Security Council diplomats are packing up their suitcases and hopping on an overseas flight to the Sahel region of West Africa to assess the serious challenges that this semiarid strip is countering. It is the first Council trip abroad since the pandemic hit in March 2020. “The Sahara is …

Africa, Caribbean, Latin America, Peace and Security, Security Council Presidency, Terrorism

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At the UN, Boris Johnson Tries to Rally Forces for the Climate Change Event in November

Dulcie Leimbach

• September 23, 2021

If you have understandably faded from the UNGA76 gathering by now, here are highlights for Day 3 of global leaders’ speeches, held on Sept. 23. We’ve also included Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s late-night remarks on Sept. 22 in the General Assembly Hall. Only four women have spoken across the three days, from Estonia, Moldova, …

Africa, Caribbean, Climate Change, General Assembly, Health and Population, Terrorism, UNGA76, US-UN Relations

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SECURITY COUNCIL PRESIDENCY

In August, India Aims to Use Its Security Council Seat to Show Why It Should Be Permanent

Stéphanie Fillion

• August 2, 2021

The presidency of the Security Council is always a high time for a country’s diplomacy, but for India right now, it’s more than that. In August, the country is going to try to show the world why it deserves a permanent seat in the United Nations’ most important body. According to T. S. Tirumurti, …

General Assembly, Middle East, Security Council Presidency, Terrorism, UN Diplomats, UN Peacekeeping

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UN Human-Rights Experts Raise Alarm Over the Fate of a Russian Ex-Guantánamo Detainee

Clair MacDougall

• July 20, 2021

Yusuf Mingazov met his father, Ravil, for the first time through a videocall between a Red Cross office in Nottingham, Britain, and the Guantánamo Bay detention camp in Cuba, where he had been imprisoned for more than 14 years. “It was kind of difficult to explain the emotions and everything, but it was nice …

Human Rights, Terrorism, US-UN Relations

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THIS WEEK @UN

India’s Reliance on Fossil Fuels, Casting Light on UN Counterterrorism Ops, US Asylum Seekers Stuck in Mexico

Allison Lecce

• August 29, 2020

US asylum seekers pushed back into Mexico in unprecedented numbers amid Covid-19; an investigation into the mysterious work of the richly financed UN counterterrorism operations; chastising India for its support of fossil fuels; and a UN envoy’s assessment of the new United Arab Emirates-Israeli pact. Greetings from This Week @UN, our summary highlighting the most …

Climate Change, Middle East, Refugees, SDGs, Terrorism, This Week @UN, US Foreign Relations

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Throwing Light on the UN’s Counterterrorism World, Funded Mainly By the Saudis and Qataris

Stéphanie Fillion

• August 24, 2020

For years, Saudi Arabia has been playing a heavy-handed role in the work of United Nations counterterrorism through its financial contributions, even as the country’s own history of funding of terrorism is problematic. Some officials who work or have worked in the UN’s counterterrorism operations denounce their lack of transparency and shudder at how …

Middle East, Terrorism

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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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WORLDVIEWS

The UN Base in Timbuktu: A Demanding Deployment in the Sahara

Benoit Bryche

• October 30, 2017

TIMBUKTU — Who wants peace in Mali? If everyone says they want it, why is carrying out the 2015 peace agreement and its cease-fire so difficult? Part of the challenge for the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Mali is not only helping to implement the agreement in the major cities, such as Timbuktu, but …

Africa, Terrorism, UN Peacekeeping, WORLDVIEWS

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BOOKS

A Hint on Confronting Islamist Power. Or Maybe Not.

Irwin Arieff

• October 7, 2017

Will it never end? When will time run out on the array of shape-shifting militant Islamist movements intent on moving into shaky trouble spots around the world to impose their extreme ideology, harness the population and hijack the local economy? How long will it take for the international community — the ubiquitous West — …

BOOKS, Libya, Middle East, Terrorism, US Foreign Relations

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UNGA72

Snubbing Trump, Europe Stands Firm on the Iran Deal

Dulcie Leimbach

• September 20, 2017

The fight over preserving the Iranian nuclear deal took a firmer direction at the United Nations on Sept. 20. After Donald Trump, the United States president, proclaimed to the General Assembly the day before that the deal was “one of the worst and most one-sided transactions the United States has ever entered into,” heads …

Disarmament, Gender Violence, Nuclear Disarmament, Security Council, Terrorism

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PassBlue Quiz: Women in Politics. Test your knowledge of female leaders and the issues they confront.

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Navi Pillay, Who Leads a UN Rights Probe on Palestine and Israel, Hits Back on Slurs Against Her

Dulcie Leimbach

WORLDVIEWS

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Terrorism

On Ghana’s Mind Right Now: Sanctions, COP27 and Terrorism in West Africa

Day 3, UN General Assembly’s Big Week: Africa Wants a Permanent Seat in the Security Council

UN Report Fails to Recognize Major Child Abductions in Parts of Nigeria

Afghan Women Must Be Central to Decision-Making on Global Aid to the Country

A US Lawyer Who Has Worked With Gitmo Detainees Details Her Journey Into a ‘Kafkaesque’ World

Kenya Is Taking the Security Council to Mali and Niger to Assess Their Problems of Terrorism

At the UN, Boris Johnson Tries to Rally Forces for the Climate Change Event in November

In August, India Aims to Use Its Security Council Seat to Show Why It Should Be Permanent

UN Human-Rights Experts Raise Alarm Over the Fate of a Russian Ex-Guantánamo Detainee

India’s Reliance on Fossil Fuels, Casting Light on UN Counterterrorism Ops, US Asylum Seekers Stuck in Mexico

Throwing Light on the UN’s Counterterrorism World, Funded Mainly By the Saudis and Qataris

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

The UN Base in Timbuktu: A Demanding Deployment in the Sahara

A Hint on Confronting Islamist Power. Or Maybe Not.

Snubbing Trump, Europe Stands Firm on the Iran Deal

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How to Move From Hostility to Cooperation in the UN Security Council

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