Richard Gowan

Could Angela Merkel Save the UN? She’s Not Interested

• February 4, 2021

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 many diplomats and others think it’s going to be a smooth ride for Guterres as …

Secretary-General, Security Council

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COVID-19

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

Maurizio Guerrero

• April 13, 2020

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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The $64,000 Question: Can the UN Survive the Trump Era?

Barbara Crossette

• December 4, 2016

The United Nations will swear in António Guterres as its ninth secretary-general on Dec. 12, when the organization will be only weeks away from the inauguration of Donald Trump and the potentially most threatening, hostile political opposition to the UN ever assembled in Washington, D.C. The UN will have to be prepared to respond …

Special Report, UN Agencies, US Foreign Relations, US-UN Relations

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You’ve Got to Be Kidding: A Twitter Account Takes Jabs at the UN Security Council

Laura E. Kirkpatrick

• November 15, 2016

Right off the bat, the profile avatar of the @eweNitedNations Twitter account lets readers know what to expect in its mordantly satirical jabs at the United Nations Security Council. A sheep, photoshopped into wearing the blue beret of UN peacekeepers, comes with a tagline that reads, “Member states are gregarious.” But what is eweNitedNations …

Security Council, US-UN Relations

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UN Peacekeeping Deaths Reach 102 in 2013

Dulcie Leimbach

• January 1, 2014

The United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations tried to maintain calm in many regions in 2013, but none more so than in Africa. In December alone, it lost numerous peacekeepers in three missions on the continent. By year’s end, the department lost 102 peacekeepers, including those who died from accidents and illnesses, and 36 …

Africa, Peace and Security, Security Council

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BOOKS

Regional Organizations Remain Vital to the UN

Helmut Volger

• April 30, 2013

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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A New UN Brigade Will Make Combat Moves in Congo

Lorraine Boissoneault

• April 11, 2013

For the first time, the United Nations Security Council has passed a resolution allowing UN troops to go on the offensive in a mission against armed rebels. The combat intervention brigade will operate as part of the UN Organization Stabilization Mission in the northeastern region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Monusco). …