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WORLDVIEWS

Diplomats Without Borders: A New Niche Service Aims to Mend Our Frayed World

• August 10, 2022

The recent agreement between the United Nations and Türkiye to enable the export of grain from Ukraine is a hopeful sign of more active mediation by countries to mitigate the raging conflict in that country. But this step, while important, is not enough to mask the inability of the UN and other global players …

Peace and Security, WORLDVIEWS

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The Veto Initiative’s First Tests: Is the Step Toward Reform Working?

• August 2, 2022

In the never-ending struggle to reform the use of the veto in the United Nations Security Council, a new initiative may prove to be relatively successful in the quest by a range of countries to change the veto step by step. This modest but potentially significant act of reform is called the “veto initiative,” …

General Assembly, Security Council, WORLDVIEWS

One Comment

A Better Way to Detect the Origins of a Pandemic

Angela Kane and Jaime Yassif

• July 26, 2022

The war in Ukraine has caused severe disruptions to regional and global security, including raising concerns about the potential use of unconventional weapons. Not least of these concerns is the dangerous Russian disinformation campaign alleging biological weapons development in Ukraine, which has led to fears that Russia itself may use chemical or biological weapons in …

Disarmament, Health and Population, WORLDVIEWS

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Will It Be a Technocrat or an Advocate? The Search for a New UN Human-Rights Chief Is Underway

Ben Donaldson and Enyseh Teimory

• July 19, 2022

LONDON — A new United Nations high commissioner for human rights needs to be found, appointed by the General Assembly and be ready to begin work on Sept. 1. Anyone who meets the criteria set out in the UN’s official job description can apply for this role — the deadline is July 27. The …

General Assembly, Human Rights, Secretary-General, WORLDVIEWS

3 Comments

15 Months to Go: Will the World Make Something of the UN Summit of the Future?

Richard Ponzio and Nudhara Yusuf

• June 21, 2022

In September 2023 — a mere 15 months from now — the United Nations’ 193 member states are expected to convene a Summit of the Future during the General Assembly’s annual high-level week in New York City. At a series of thematic consultations held in February and March 2022 by the president of the …

General Assembly, Peace and Security, Secretary-General, Security Council, WORLDVIEWS

One Comment

How Global Sanctions Can Be Better Targeted to End Sexual Violence in War

Daniel Salazar and Robert Nagel

• June 14, 2022

With the International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict approaching on June 19, it is time for governments to push harder to impose targeted global sanctions against perpetrators of sexual violence in conflict. Conflict-related sexual violence is gaining renewed attention amid reports of sexual violence by Russian forces in Ukraine. While …

Gender Violence, Security Council, WORLDVIEWS

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US Secretary of State Blinken’s Homage to the UN

Stephen Schlesinger

• June 7, 2022

If there is a mantra for United States foreign policy under the Biden administration, it is the idea of a “rules-based international order.” Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in a major speech delivered at the Asia Society on May 26 on US-China relations, cited the phrase or variations of it 16 times in his …

General Assembly, Security Council, US Foreign Relations, US-UN Relations, WORLDVIEWS

8 Comments

A Just Peace for an Unjust War in Ukraine

Mona Ali Khalil

• May 29, 2022

Former United States President George W. Bush’s unwitting truth is as tragic as it is hypocritical. The “absence of checks and balances in Russia,” he said recently, has resulted in “the decision of one man to launch a wholly unjustified and brutal invasion of Iraq, I mean of the Ukraine. Iraq too.” While he …

General Assembly, Peace and Security, Security Council, WORLDVIEWS

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What Russia’s Lavrov Left Behind: Those Golden UN Years

• May 23, 2022

Can we shed a tear for Sergey Lavrov? Who could have foreseen, a few years back, the huge mess he now finds himself in? Spanning five decades of service in Moscow’s foreign policy hierarchy, the veteran envoy has worked his way up to the very highest levels of international diplomacy after starting out in …

Peace and Security, Security Council, UN Diplomats, WORLDVIEWS

3 Comments

To Stalin, Ukraine Was an Independent Country

Stephen Schlesinger

• May 10, 2022

Vladimir Putin published an essay last year stating that Russians and Ukrainians were “one people.” He wrote: “I am confident that true sovereignty of Ukraine is possible only in partnership with Russia.” Thirteen years earlier, in a 2008 meeting with President George W. Bush, Putin went further, telling Bush that Ukraine was “not a …

Peace and Security, WORLDVIEWS

8 Comments

Further Outsourcing of $86 Billion UN Pension Fund Is Paused, and Questions Arise About Russian Investments

Loraine Rickard-Martin

• April 28, 2022

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has paused his plan to further outsource the management of the $86 billion UN pension fund’s assets to Wall Street. The plan to allow an additional 18 percent of the fund’s assets to investment companies would have doubled the amount already being privatized. Questions also have arisen about the …

UN Pension Fund, WORLDVIEWS

One Comment

Liechtenstein’s ‘Veto Initiative’ Wins Wide Approval at the UN. Will It Deter the Big Powers?

• April 26, 2022

A major effort to reform the use of the veto in the United Nations Security Council came to fruition in a rare move on April 26, when the General Assembly adopted a resolution by consensus to raise the political cost of exercising the veto by the five permanent members of the Council: Britain, China, …

General Assembly, WORLDVIEWS

4 Comments

Making the Most of the 2023 UN Summit of the Future

María Fernanda Espinosa and Danilo Turk

• April 20, 2022

Combined with the growing fears of irreversible climate change and emerging new Covid-19 variants and subvariants, stands an ominous “third C”: conflict between Russia and Ukraine, which has triggered a refugee crisis on a scale not witnessed in Europe since the end of World War II. At the same time, civil wars in Africa …

Climate Change, General Assembly, WORLDVIEWS

3 Comments

Handling Zelensky: The UN’s Dilemma

Stephen Schlesinger

• April 18, 2022

The United Nations has been widely criticized for failing to stop the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Critics point out that Russia has vetoed every action in the Security Council to stymie or end the Russian attack. Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky even told the Council earlier this month that given its many standoffs, it might …

Peace and Security, Secretary-General, Security Council, WORLDVIEWS

4 Comments

The Missing Link in a UN Cold Case? A French Death Warrant Against Dag Hammarskjold Comes to Light

• April 14, 2022

Six decades after the unexplained death of United Nations Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold and 15 other people in a plane crash in Central Africa, a new discovery in French government archives may bring researchers closer to the truth and answer a famous Cold War riddle: Who killed Hammarskjold? The discovery of an important clue happened …

Africa, Secretary-General, WORLDVIEWS

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