Seton Hall Graduate Degree in International Affairs
Seton Hall Graduate Degree in International Affairs

BLUE SMOKE: A new monthly newsletter, from PassBlue and UNA–UK, which shines a spotlight on senior appointments at the UN

Angela Merkel

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This week, the focus is on the humanitarian disasters from wars and violence around the world. You are reading This Week @UN, summarizing the most pressing issues before the organization. The information is gathered from UN press briefings, PassBlue…

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BERLIN — During her final visit to the United States last year as Germany’s chancellor, Angela Merkel was asked about her plans for when she stepped down as her country’s leader in December. “Maybe I will try to read something,”…

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A US delegation to Haiti returns early; potential risks for the $87 billion UN pension fund; an ex-Guantánamo detainee may face torture in Russia. You are reading This Week @UN, summarizing the most pressing issues facing the organization. The information…

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BERLIN — When Christoph Heusgen was appointed Germany’s ambassador to the United Nations in New York City in 2017, there were critical comments by foreign policy experts and journalists in our country. They voiced doubts about whether Heusgen, who…

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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…

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BERLIN — In the seating snub heard round the world, the first woman president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, was not offered a chair in April while meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and European Council President Charles…

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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…

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A coup staged in Myanmar; the UN’s first unofficial feminist dies; Aleksei Navalny’s sentencing. You are reading This Week @UN, a summary of the most pressing issues facing the organization. The information is gathered from the UN spokesperson’s press…

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This year marks the last stretch of Secretary-General António Guterres’s current term at the United Nations, but in January he announced his desire to seek a second five-year term, ending speculation as to whether he would run again. If…

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How bad was 2020? So awful that Match.com made a commercial in which a woman named 2020 falls in love with the Devil and they live happily ever after. As annoying as it is that 2020 is portrayed as…

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The 25th anniversary of the landmark global action plan that was adopted to expand the equality and rights of women and girls was jinxed from the start. The celebratory event, long scheduled for March, was hastily postponed as the Covid-19…

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Germany is anticipating two milestones between now and Dec. 31 — make that three. On July 31, its monthly rotating presidency of the United Nations Security Council ends, and on Dec. 31 its two-year stint on the Council is…

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Men will dominate the podium during much of the United Nations General Assembly but, as Abigail Adams urged her husband and other founding fathers of the United States in 1776, “remember the ladies.” This is advice that the UN needs…

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Donald Trump will shake hands with Emmanuel Macron, Jair Bolsonaro and Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. But will Benjamin Netanyahu; Boris Johnson and Angela Merkel be there, too? The 74th opening debate of the United Nations General Assembly, which starts on…

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As a united front in the fight to preserve the European Union, France and Germany are about to gain a global audience. During March and April, their top United Nations ambassadors, François Delattre and Christoph Heusgen, will take turns —…

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Seton Hall Graduate Degree in International Affairs

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