UN75

India Renews Claim for a Permanent Security Council Seat; UK Seeks Global Unity Against Covid

• September 26, 2020

Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India accused the United Nations of failing to update its work and adopt overdue reforms in his speech to the General Assembly’s 75th-anniversary session, on Sept. 26. He praised what he saw as India’s leading role in the world on many fronts and asked, in a focus of his …

General Assembly, UN75

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UN75

Trump’s Foreign Policy Brilliance? Let Me Count the Disasters

Irwin Arieff

• September 25, 2020

Fake news alert: President Donald Trump said something vaguely positive about the United Nations during his speech marking the opening of this year’s General Assembly session. “God bless you all. God bless America. And God bless the United Nations,” Trump intoned on Sept. 22. Comically, the world body may justifiably be relieved, having braced …

General Assembly, UN75, US-UN Relations

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UN75

The Dos and Don’ts of Digital Diplomacy in the Covid-19 World

Stéphanie Fillion

• September 24, 2020

The first-ever virtual General Assembly session has been full of both challenges and opportunities: the risks of technical problems were high (and some have happened), but the opportunities for global leaders to stand out individually in their pre-recorded video speeches turned out to be greater than speaking in the cavernous General Assembly Hall. While …

General Assembly, UN75

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UN75

Finally, a Woman Leader Speaks at the UN General Assembly Debate: Slovakia

Sonah Lee-Lassiter

• September 23, 2020

A pre-recorded statement from Bosnia and Herzegovina’s President Sefik Dzaferovic kicked off Day 2 of the 75th General Assembly, and like many other world leaders, he called for heightened multilateralism amid today’s pandemic and global conflicts. Simultaneously, for the first hour of the day, a Unicef-sponsored virtual event about protecting future generations from the …

General Assembly, SDGs, UN75

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UN75

At the UN: US Condemns China; France Lectures; China Plays Sage; Turkey Is Gifted

Barbara Crossette

• September 22, 2020

Donald Trump, speaking on the opening day of the United Nations’ 75th General Assembly session — the same day that the United States officially tallied a coronavirus death toll of 200,000 people — reiterated all his familiar grievances against China and added a few. He blamed the Chinese not only for spreading Covid-19 across …

General Assembly, UN75

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UN75

Among World Leaders at UN’s 75th Commemoration, Trump Is a No-Show

Evelyn Leopold

• September 21, 2020

President Trump failed to deliver an expected video speech for the United Nations’ 75th anniversary commemoration. Instead, the acting deputy United States ambassador addressed the ceremony live from UN headquarters. From Washington, Secretary of State Michael Pompeo announced new sanctions against Iran during the UN anniversary remembrance, flanked by the US ambassador to the UN, …

General Assembly, Nuclear Disarmament, UN75, US Foreign Relations

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UN75

75 Years In, Does the UN Still Matter? Our New Podcast Episode

Stéphanie Fillion and Kacie Candela

• June 25, 2020

On June 26, 1945, delegates from 50 nations who had gathered in San Francisco over two months to attend the United Nations Conference on International Organization signed the United Nations Charter, forging a new world order. Seventy-five years in and a whole different world later, the UN is celebrating its past, present and future, …

Secretary-General, Security Council, UN75

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UN75

Who Knew? Putin Loves the United Nations

Stephen Schlesinger

• June 24, 2020

It turns out that Vladimir Putin is a history buff. He has just written a lengthy piece for the American magazine National Interest, titled “The Real Lessons of the 75th Anniversary of World War 2″ and published on June 18. In his assessment, Putin reviews the events leading to the second world war, including the …

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UN75

The UN-75 Declaration, a Daring Commitment for a More Perfect World

Richard Ponzio and Cristina Petcu

• June 23, 2020

On the heels of the 1930s Great Depression and in the midst of global turmoil — World War II — leaders from the Republic of China, the Soviet Union, the United States and the United Kingdom gathered in 1944 at Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, D.C., to consider a new postwar international architecture to succeed …

Climate Change, Governance, Secretary-General, UN75

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UN75

Will the UN Make It to 100?

Thomas G. Weiss

• June 2, 2020

Seventy-five years ago this month, delegates in San Francisco signed the United Nations Charter. Anniversary events were supposed to culminate in the commemoration of the entry into force of the world organization’s constitution on Oct. 24. That, of course, was before Covid-19 turned the world upside-down. Like school and university commencements, the UN’s celebration …

UN75, US-UN Relations

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COVID-19

UN at 75: The Security Council Must Remember Why It Exists

Mona Ali Khalil and Fred Carver

• April 21, 2020

The United Nations is turning 75 this year. While the UN has so far successfully averted a third world war, the aggressions in Iraq, Ukraine and Syria remind us that interstate conflicts remain a real and present danger. The Security Council’s failure to resolve intrastate conflicts, from the Democratic Republic of the Congo to …

Covid-19, Secretary-General, Security Council, UN75

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WORLDVIEWS

Will the UN-75 Declaration Signify More Than a Birthday Party?

Richard Ponzio

• February 17, 2020

WASHINGTON, D.C. — United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres used his annual State of the World speech to the General Assembly last month to outline his 2020 priorities. He stressed four threats to progress in the 21st century: growing geostrategic tensions and mass violence in fragile states, creating an unprecedented refugee crisis; the climate catastrophe; rising mistrust …

Secretary-General, UN75, WORLDVIEWS

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Melissa Fleming Wants to Change the UN’s Public Image. Can She Do It?

Stéphanie Fillion

• January 27, 2020

The United Nations turns 75 this year, all year long. As its purpose is being questioned by some of its biggest donor nations, including the United States, the UN has a new person to reshape its public image through its global communications office, starting with how it presents its news. PassBlue obtained an exclusive copy …