Afghanistan

• September 10, 2021

Calling all world leaders to the General Assembly; the Taliban shun women; Biden’s confounding foreign policy. 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 other sources. Scoop: Incoming members of the obscure but influential UN General Assembly Credentials …

General Assembly, Secretary-General, Security Council, This Week @UN, UN Agencies, US-UN Relations

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What to Expect From This Year’s UN General Assembly, So Far

Stéphanie Fillion

• September 7, 2021

This year’s United Nations General Assembly could make or break the future of in-person meetings at the gathering in New York City. After a year of carefully negotiating, adapting and crafting health guidelines, UNGA organizers are hoping to avoid a repeat of last year’s first, almost entirely virtual, gathering. But the threat of the …

Africa, Asia, General Assembly, Latin America, Middle East, Secretary-General, Security Council, UNGA76, US-UN Relations

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THIS WEEK @UN

The UN Sticks to Afghanistan; Ireland Steers the Security Council; Preying on Mothers’ Fears

Anna Bianca Roach

• September 3, 2021

The UN’s priorities in Afghanistan for now; how certain multinational corporations feed on new-mothers’ fears amid Covid; Ireland’s envoy defends the rights of women and girls in Afghanistan. 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 other sources. …

Human Rights, Secretary-General, Security Council, This Week @UN, UN Agencies, US Foreign Relations, US-UN Relations

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SECURITY COUNCIL PRESIDENCY

How Tough Can Ireland Be on Protecting Afghan Women’s Rights?

Stéphanie Fillion

• September 1, 2021

The day after the Taliban took over Kabul, Afghanistan’s capital, Ambassador Geraldine Byrne Nason of Ireland spoke directly to Afghan women through her remarks in the United Nations Security Council, telling them: “Women of Afghanistan: we hear you and we hear your pleas to the international community at this dark time. The fear, indignation …

Human Rights, Security Council Presidency

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TOPIC: WOMEN

This Afghan Activist Keeps Telling the Taliban to Respect the Rights of Women and Girls

Fiona Shukri

• August 18, 2021

The Taliban seized Afghanistan’s second-largest city of Kandahar just last week, marking the beginning of the quick takeover of the country. Kandahar, a city of 60,000 that borders Pakistan, is a historic center of Pashtun culture and power and was once Afghanistan’s capital. Three days later, on Sunday, the nation’s capital of Kabul was …

Gender Violence, Human Rights, Women

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THIS WEEK @UN

UN Attacked in Afghanistan; Myanmar’s Envoy Seat Contested; Canada’s Big Step for an Inuit

Ivana Ramirez

• July 30, 2021

A deadly assault on the United Nations’ mission in Afghanistan; Myanmar’s junta seeks the UN envoy seat; the World Meteorological Organization’s troubles; Canada’s big step for Inuits. 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 other sources. …

General Assembly, Humanitarian Aid, Secretary-General, This Week @UN, US-UN Relations

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THIS WEEK @UN

The IAEA Chief’s Laments; Two UN Giants Mourned; European Peacekeepers Attacked in Mali

Ivana Ramirez

• June 25, 2021

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 is gathered from UN press briefings, PassBlue reporting and other sources. We are nearly halfway …

Africa, LGBT, Nuclear Disarmament, Secretary-General, Security Council, This Week @UN, US-UN Relations

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WORLDVIEWS

The Congo, Afghanistan and the Limits of Outside Intervention

Alan Doss

• January 18, 2021

This year, two expansive — and expensive — international peace and security entities will pass a significant milestone. The United Nations peacekeeping operation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the NATO operation in Afghanistan have been deployed for two decades. Although these missions differ in many respects, notably in the scale and …

Africa, Asia, Security Council, UN Peacekeeping, WORLDVIEWS

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COVID-19

The Collateral Damage in Trump’s War on the WHO: Ending Polio for Good

Fiona Shukri

• June 15, 2020

Already struggling with a surging Covid-19 pandemic, United Nations health agencies must now face the possible abdication of the United States’ leading role in fighting polio — just as the world gets tantalizingly close to eradicating it for good. Polio-free since 1979, the US has historically made combating the infectious disease its top funding …

Covid-19, US-UN Relations

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WORLDVIEWS

My Beautiful Christmas in Kabul

Fiona Shukri

• December 24, 2019

The Christmas spirit finally found me drinking whisky on a rooftop in Kabul. Given my multinational background — I’m from Boston but my father came from Iraq and my mother from London — it’s not surprising that I chose a career in foreign affairs. When people learn I spent nearly a decade in Afghanistan, …

WORLDVIEWS

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Hillary Clinton on Trump’s Foreign Policy: It’s All About Waiting for His Next Tweet

Dulcie Leimbach

• October 16, 2019

Hillary Clinton glided onto a stage in Manhattan with the luxury of now being a cool-eyed outsider who can sharply question foreign policy decisions being made by the Trump administration on such controversial places as China, Syria, Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan. Clinton was the keynote speaker at the Carnegie Corporation of New York’s daylong …

Asia, Human Rights, Syria, US Foreign Relations

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TOPIC: WOMEN

A Journey Into Terror and Truth: My Travels Alone in Afghanistan

Johanna Higgs

• February 13, 2019

ISHKASHIM, Afghanistan — I entered the country from the northeast, from Tajikistan, where I had been traveling for a month, researching the lives of women, as I have been doing across the world for years. From the small town of Khorog in Tajikistan, I hired a taxi to drive me to the border crossing. …

Gender Violence, Women

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TAKE A LOOK

Where the Hungriest People in the World Live

Barbara Crossette

• October 25, 2017

The 2017 Global Hunger Index produced many sadly predictable findings but also worrying surprises. The report’s subtitle, “The Inequalities of Hunger,” suggests a reason. Naomi Hossain, the guest author of the report, looks at the power structures that can dictate every step of a food chain. “In food systems, power is exercised in a …