Javier Pérez de Cuéllar

Brian Urquhart, a Revered UN Diplomat Across Decades, Dies at 101

• January 3, 2021

Brian Urquhart, who spent most of his adult life in service to the United Nations, died on Saturday, Jan. 2, at his home in Tyringham, Mass., in the Berkshires, where he retired after serving as one of the most notable figures in the history of the UN. In his tenure, he embodied the very narrative …

UN Diplomats

2 Comments

WORLDVIEWS

Happy 100th Birthday, Sir Brian Urquhart, Heart of the UN

Stephen Schlesinger

• May 8, 2019

Sir Brian Urquhart has celebrated his 100th birthday this year. This is an eventful moment. Sir Brian is one of the most notable figures in the history of the United Nations. Urquhart has spent most of his entire life in service to the UN and, in his tenure, embodied the very narrative of the …

WORLDVIEWS

5 Comments

WORLDVIEWS

Who Says the UN Is Boring? Intrigue Always Abounds in Its Inner Core

Herman T. Salton

• March 20, 2018

Bureaucracies do not have a great reputation, and the United Nations bureaucracy is no exception. They are seen as inefficient, cumbersome and rigid, adjectives that are also routinely associated with the UN Secretariat. At best considered a “necessary evil,” bureaucracies tend to attract scorn rather than analysis. The UN Secretariat, however, is different. Although …

Secretary-General, US-UN Relations, WORLDVIEWS

Leave a Comment

WORLDVIEWS

Thank You, UN, for Defending Our Human Rights Against Gross Violations

Bertrand Ramcharan

• January 30, 2018

From 1970 to 2000, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, the predecessor to today’s Human Rights Council, considered in closed meetings and acted on some 80 country situations where there were reliable allegations of gross violations of human rights. In parallel, the UN Decolonization Committee and the Special Committee Against Apartheid gathered information, …

Human Rights, WORLDVIEWS

Leave a Comment

TOPIC: WOMEN

Sexual Harassment at the UN Is Alive and Persistent

Laura E. Kirkpatrick

• December 22, 2017

As its people of the year, Time magazine recently named the Silence Breakers — people who have spoken against sexual harassment and launched the hashtag #MeToo into an international phenomenon with more than seven million hits on social media. Just before the announcement, more than 230 women who work in national security for the …

Gender Violence, Human Rights, Secretary-General, UN Diplomats, Women

4 Comments

WORLDVIEWS

Ban Ki-moon’s Travels: Escape Hatch or Act of Diplomacy?

Helmut Volger

• July 1, 2015

BERLIN — If you take a close look at the public schedule of United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, it becomes evident that he travels a lot to member states, even more than his charismatic and most active predecessor Kofi Annan. Why does Ban travel so often? Some critics suggest that Ban wants to distract …

WORLDVIEWS

Leave a Comment

What Matters Most in Choosing the Next UN Chief? Politics, Geography and Maybe Gender

Lucia Mouat

• January 21, 2015

The post of United Nations secretary-general may or may not be “the world’s most impossible job,” as its first occupant, Trygve Lie, a Norwegian, once described it. In any case, UN members must choose a successor to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon well before the close of 2016. Some potential candidates are already campaigning for the …

Secretary-General, Security Council, US-UN Relations

Leave a Comment

BOOKS

Lonely at the Top: What It’s Like to Be the UN Secretary-General

Barbara Crossette

• April 17, 2014

There have been eight secretaries-general of the United Nations in the 68 years since the first of them, Trygve Lie of Norway, took on this unique global position. All eight — all men — have been very different in character and personality, in their cultural and political backgrounds and in their views of how …