African Union

Combating Covid-19 Universally; Picking the Next UN Boss; the Climate Pact Needs the US

December 4, 2020

Covid-19 and its vaccine get their own special session; steps to select the next United Nations leader must begin; pressure builds on the United States to rejoin the Paris Agreement on climate change. You are reading This Week @UN, summarizing the most-pressing issues facing the international organization. The information is gathered from the UN spokesperson’s …

Africa, Climate and Environment, Governance, Health and Population, This Week @UN

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SECURITY COUNCIL PRESIDENCY

South Africa, Bringing the Continent Inside the Security Council

December 3, 2020

by Stéphanie Fillion

In the last hurrah of its two-year term, South Africa happens to be president of the Security Council in December, so it is making the most of its final month by holding a debate on the all-important United Nations-African Union relationship. South Africa is also chairing the African Union this year, until February 2021, …

Africa, Security Council Presidency

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Sidelining Africans, the US Imposes Its Own Choice for UN Envoy to Libya

November 16, 2020

by Maurizio Guerrero

Ignoring two proposals from Africa to fill the United Nations special envoy post for Libya, the United States demanded that the secretary-general, António Guterres, accept its own choice, several diplomats have told PassBlue. The maneuver could leave Africa with only a minimal voice in the mediation of a war in its own continent, spurred …

Africa, Gender-Based Violence, Libya, Secretary-General, Security Council, UN Special Envoys

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COVID-19

Africans Struggle to Be a Unified Force in the UN Security Council, Complicated by the Coronavirus

April 13, 2020

by Maurizio Guerrero

The three elected members that represent Africa on the United Nations Security Council generally present a unified front on the continent’s numerous challenges — many involving foreign intervention — that land on the Council’s agenda. The problem for Africans is that the big world powers routinely ignore them. The other problem is that Africans …

Africa, Covid-19, Security Council

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As Kenya and Djibouti Fight Over a UN Security Council Seat, China Pops Up

January 24, 2020

by Maurizio Guerrero

Djibouti is vying with Kenya to win an elected seat in the United Nations Security Council for the 2021-22 term among the African bloc. The candidacy contest for the current open seat has revealed a rare open disagreement between African nations that is linked to China’s control in parts of the continent. The African …

Africa, Security Council

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GEOPOLITICS

Did Equatorial Guinea Bribe Its Way to a UN Security Council Seat?

May 23, 2017

by Kacie Candela

Amid the predominantly Francophone region in West Africa is tiny Spanish-speaking Equatorial Guinea, a country blessed — or cursed — with vast oil reserves. For most of its independent life, the country has been ruled by President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, who has the distinction of being the longest-serving nonroyal head of state in …

Africa, Geopolitics, Human Rights, Poverty, Security Council

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BOOKS

Africa’s War Problem

July 12, 2016

by Irwin Arieff

Too much of Africa is a mess. While there are, of course, great success stories, many countries continue, despite the end of colonialism and the Cold War, to suffer wildly from poverty, illness, corruption, coups and wars — too many compared with the rest of the world. Even as an outsized slice of United …

BOOKS

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BOOKS

Regional Organizations Remain Vital to the UN

April 30, 2013

by Helmut Volger

Formed as a “club” of nation states, the United Nations took some time to find out that cooperation with regional organizations might be of some use in improving social and economic living conditions as well as maintaining international peace and security and safeguarding the enjoyment of human rights. It was not before the economic …

BOOKS

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Regional Partners Lighten the UN’s Burdens

November 26, 2011

by Barbara Crossette

Since the founding of the United Nations more than 65 years ago, groups of regional nations – in Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas – have become the organization’s political, peacekeeping and development partners. While some of these groups have kept a low profile, several now find themselves in the international spotlight as crucial …

Asia, Peace and Security

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African Union

Combating Covid-19 Universally; Picking the Next UN Boss; the Climate Pact Needs the US

South Africa, Bringing the Continent Inside the Security Council

Sidelining Africans, the US Imposes Its Own Choice for UN Envoy to Libya

Africans Struggle to Be a Unified Force in the UN Security Council, Complicated by the Coronavirus

As Kenya and Djibouti Fight Over a UN Security Council Seat, China Pops Up

Did Equatorial Guinea Bribe Its Way to a UN Security Council Seat?

Africa’s War Problem

Regional Organizations Remain Vital to the UN

Regional Partners Lighten the UN’s Burdens

This Week's Most Popular

The Congo, Afghanistan and the Limits of Outside Intervention

If Africa Is So Rich, Why Is It So Poor?

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UN-Scripted, the Passblue UN podcast series

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