WORLDVIEWS

To Stalin, Ukraine Was an Independent Country

• 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

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WORLDVIEWS

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

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WORLDVIEWS

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

Ben Donaldson

• 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

WORLDVIEWS

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

2 Comments

WORLDVIEWS

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

WORLDVIEWS

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

Maurin Picard

• 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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WORLDVIEWS

Russia’s Aggression Against Ukraine Has Major Implications Throughout East Asia

Yasuhiro Ueki

• April 4, 2022

Russia’s unprovoked and unjustified military attack on Ukraine has not only undermined the basic norms and tenets of the international order based on the United Nations Charter but it has also provoked strategic recalculations of international relations in the rest of the world, including in East Asia. The Russian invasion has pushed Japan firmly …

Asia, Nuclear Disarmament, Peace and Security, Security Council, WORLDVIEWS

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WORLDVIEWS

Could WMD Be Used in the War in Ukraine?

Nikolai Sokov

• March 24, 2022

Lately, pundits, experts and even government officials are increasingly discussing the possible use of nuclear weapons and/or other weapons of mass destruction amid the war Russia launched against Ukraine a month ago. A closer look, however, suggests that while the threat of nuclear war has risen, the popular scenarios entirely miss the point. Popular …

Nuclear Disarmament, Peace and Security, WORLDVIEWS

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WORLDVIEWS

Follow-Up to UN Probe on Myanmar Isn’t Making a Big Difference for the People There

Damian Lilly

• March 17, 2022

In 2019, the independent inquiry into the United Nations’ response to the Rohingya crisis, which drove 750,000 refugees from Myanmar’s Rakhine state into Bangladesh in 2017, found “systemic and structural failures.” UN Secretary-General António Guterres accepted all the findings of the inquiry and will present a report on the progress that has been made …

Human Rights, Myanmar, WORLDVIEWS

4 Comments

WORLDVIEWS

Where Is the UN’s Guterres?

Stephen Schlesinger

• March 15, 2022

It is long overdue for United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres to intervene more forcefully in Russia’s war on Ukraine and use his good offices to try to forge a cease-fire and work out a final settlement on this nightmarish conflict. We have reached a perilous moment when any number of incidents may spin out …

Peace and Security, Secretary-General, WORLDVIEWS

4 Comments

WORLDVIEWS

The 2020 Beirut Blast Killed My Son. The UN Must Investigate Who Is Responsible for the Deadly Explosion

Sarah Copland

• March 14, 2022

The flying glass was the first thing I saw when the Port of Beirut exploded on Aug. 4, 2020. I was thrown to the ground, and my body, heavily pregnant, was riddled with shards from our shattered window. A sonic boom sounded a split-second later. Isaac, my two-year-old son, had been sitting in his …

Human Rights, WORLDVIEWS

2 Comments

WORLDVIEWS

Will Ukraine Bury Feminist Foreign Policies or Will It Reveal Their Power?

Yasmine Ergas

• March 9, 2022

Mothers appeal to mothers. Who doesn’t understand the power of women speaking to women about fear for their children? We listen as young women — parliamentarians, government ministers — who are staying to defend their country and denounce the insufficiencies of allies’ support. Who doesn’t perceive that their authority is enhanced because their decision …

Gender Violence, Peace and Security, WORLDVIEWS

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WORLDVIEWS

Putin Can Be Charged Personally for Carnage in Ukraine, Legal Experts Say

Yasuhiro Ueki

• March 7, 2022

Russia’s unprovoked military attack on Ukraine meets the definition of “act of aggression,” as defined by the International Criminal Court. The Rome Statute, which is the legal basis of the ICC, states in its Article 8 bis 2 that an “act of aggression means the use of armed force by a State against the …

WORLDVIEWS

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WORLDVIEWS

United Nations: The Last Thing Putin Wants

Mark Malloch-Brown

• February 28, 2022

Putin’s decision to send Russian troops into Ukraine was a flagrant breach of the most fundamental rules of interstate relationships. It was not only an unprovoked attack against an independent sovereign nation, and by an unfree country on a free one, it was also a major offensive strike against the heart of the United …

General Assembly, Peace and Security, Security Council, WORLDVIEWS

4 Comments

WORLDVIEWS

Meanwhile in Afghanistan, Women Are Suffering Needlessly This Winter

Sally Anne Corcoran

• February 15, 2022

As girls are being sold in the streets of Kabul, the Norwegian government flew in the Taliban and people from Afghan civil society into Oslo to talk to one another and with Western diplomats. While United Nations agencies have warned repeatedly that 22 million Afghans face acute hunger, the Taliban regime flirts with legitimacy …

Asia, Peace and Security, WORLDVIEWS

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WORLDVIEWS

To Stalin, Ukraine Was an Independent Country

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

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

Making the Most of the 2023 UN Summit of the Future

Handling Zelensky: The UN’s Dilemma

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

Russia’s Aggression Against Ukraine Has Major Implications Throughout East Asia

Could WMD Be Used in the War in Ukraine?

Follow-Up to UN Probe on Myanmar Isn’t Making a Big Difference for the People There

Where Is the UN’s Guterres?

The 2020 Beirut Blast Killed My Son. The UN Must Investigate Who Is Responsible for the Deadly Explosion

Will Ukraine Bury Feminist Foreign Policies or Will It Reveal Their Power?

Putin Can Be Charged Personally for Carnage in Ukraine, Legal Experts Say

United Nations: The Last Thing Putin Wants

Meanwhile in Afghanistan, Women Are Suffering Needlessly This Winter

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Russia’s Powerful Perch at the UN Is Crumbling

Russia Has Used Its UN Seat to Hide Atrocities Committed in the Central African Republic, Experts Say

To Stalin, Ukraine Was an Independent Country

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

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