Online Program Enrolling Now - Seton Hall - United Nations Institute for Training and Research
Online Program Enrolling Now - Seton Hall - United Nations Institute for Training and Research

BLUE SMOKE: A monthly column, from PassBlue and UNA–UK, spotlighting senior appointments at the UN

US-UN Relations

LEAVE A COMMENT
Rafael Grossi of the IAEA on Iran, gender bias and diplomacy; nuke-weapons countries just keep spending billions; European peacekeepers attacked in Gao, Mali. You are reading This Week @UN, summarizing the most pressing issues facing the organization. The information…

LEAVE A COMMENT

 
LEAVE A COMMENT
One of America’s greatest supporters of the United Nations, Ambassador William vanden Heuvel, died on June 15 in New York City at age 91. A son of European immigrants, vanden Heuvel grew up in the upstate city of Rochester,…

LEAVE A COMMENT

 
LEAVE A COMMENT
The UN’s leader is sworn in for another term; Myanmar’s rapid instability; elevating the US ambassador’s profile. You are reading This Week @UN, summarizing the most pressing issues facing the organization. The information is gathered from UN press briefings, PassBlue…

LEAVE A COMMENT

 
LEAVE A COMMENT
After four years of wandering lost in the desert, diplomacy is finding its way back to Washington. With Joe Biden in the Oval Office, “America First” is out and “multilateralism,” “cooperation” and “alliance” are no longer dirty words. Washington…

LEAVE A COMMENT

 
LEAVE A COMMENT
Surely, the reappointment of Guterres is not because there aren’t many women leaders of high calibre that the UN members could have considered seriously for the post. But this year could have initiated the beginning of a new era…

LEAVE A COMMENT

 
LEAVE A COMMENT
Fighting global corruption; Estonia, run by women; Iran loses its voting rights at the UN; a sex-video scandal, unresolved a year later. You are reading This Week @UN, summarizing the most pressing issues facing the organization. The information is gathered…

LEAVE A COMMENT

 
LEAVE A COMMENT
Grass-roots activists know peace-building best; Gaza reconstruction goals begin; the UN Security Council returns home. You are reading This Week @UN, summarizing the most pressing issues facing the organization. The information is gathered from UN press briefings, PassBlue reporting and…

LEAVE A COMMENT

 
LEAVE A COMMENT
The proposed selection of Rebeca Grynspan, a Costa Rican economist and former vice president of her country, to head the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development was made without consulting the core of the agency — the Group…

LEAVE A COMMENT

 
LEAVE A COMMENT
Girls at a gated UN school in Gaza being used as a shelter amid the bombing by Israel in its fight against Hamas’s rocket fire. Thousands of families in Gaza have fled their homes since the conflict began on…

LEAVE A COMMENT

 
LEAVE A COMMENT
Across seven straight days of sudden, staggering violence between Israel and Hamas and rising death tolls of civilians, all 15 members of the Security Council aired their views publicly at the United Nations on Sunday, after the Council held…

LEAVE A COMMENT

 
LEAVE A COMMENT
Abed Al Fatah Skafi at his house in Sheikh Jarrah, Jerusalem, March 1, 2021. Skafi’s family is one of four that are being threatened with eviction in favor of Israeli settlers. Anger over Israeli treatment of Palestinians in Jerusalem have…

LEAVE A COMMENT

 
LEAVE A COMMENT
It was all over in one crucial week. Barring an unforeseen hitch, António Guterres is the clear winner of a second, five-year term as secretary-general of the United Nations, beginning on Jan.1, 2022. This was not a surprise: he…

LEAVE A COMMENT

 
LEAVE A COMMENT
China in the United Nations’ hot seat; Guterres’s vision for another five years; the future of global cooperation; who was Anne Dragon Nezeriotis? You are reading This Week @UN, summarizing the most pressing issues facing the organization. The information is…

LEAVE A COMMENT

 
LEAVE A COMMENT
The job of United Nations secretary-general is the “most impossible on earth,” as the first postholder, Trygve Lie, famously told his successor, Dag Hammarskjold. Though Lie spoke partly in jest to amuse the assembled reporters, the remark has stuck…

LEAVE A COMMENT

 
LEAVE A COMMENT
Veronique Vandegans, the United Nations chief of the French Interpretation Section, working at home in Brooklyn, N.Y., with company. The photo is part of a story for the UN Department of Global Communications on remote interpretation. MANUEL ELIAS/UN PHOTO The…

LEAVE A COMMENT

 
UNGA78: A quiz from PassBlue
Online Program Enrolling Now - Seton Hall - United Nations Institute for Training and Research

THIS WEEK'S MOST POPULAR

Don't Miss a Story:

Subscribe to PassBlue

Sign up to get the smartest news on the UN by email, joining readers across the globe.​

We respect your privacy and take protecting it seriously​