UN Secretariat

• August 10, 2021

As outbreaks of Covid-19 cases spike again in many places worldwide, the United Nations Secretariat in New York City faces reopening decisions that pit some staff members’ interests against those of UN member states. Pressure is coming from UN member states that want the headquarters to reopen fully with a significant number of staff …

Covid-19, General Assembly, Secretary-General, UN Agencies

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COVID-19

Can the “Third UN” Reimagine Post-Covid Global Cooperation?

Tatiana Carayannis and Thomas G. Weiss

• October 19, 2020

This week we celebrate the 75th anniversary of the United Nations, as the Covid-19 pandemic highlights our interdependence and the need for global cooperation. Enthusiasm for it, however, is in short supply amid deteriorating Washington-Beijing relations, Brexit and rising populisms. Throughout its history, the UN has confronted bureaucratic challenges and radical changes in world …

Climate and Environment, Covid-19, Governance, Health and Population, WORLDVIEWS

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WORLDVIEWS

Peacekeeping Bosses Should Be Chosen by the UN and Not the Paymasters

Kseniya Oksamytna and Vincenzo Bove and Magnus Lundgren

• July 7, 2020

Leaders of United Nations peacekeeping operations comprise an important and unique category of high-level officials in the world body. They have a difficult and often thankless job of trying to manage “Christmas tree” mandates handed down by the Security Council while keeping great powers and national authorities happy. Along the way, these leaders enjoy …

Peace and Security, UN Peacekeeping, US-UN Relations, WORLDVIEWS

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COVID-19

The UN Is Hunting for a New Medical Director, Based in New York City

Stéphanie Fillion

• May 12, 2020

“Are you a senior medical executive with expertise in healthcare management with oversight of clinical services and occupational health at a facility, state, national or international level? The United Nations Secretariat is seeking a Medical Director at the D-2 level in the Department of Operational Support,” an ad posting on the UN’s job portal …

Covid-19, Secretary-General

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WORLDVIEWS

The UN’s Three Main Bodies Are Failing to Do Their Job

Mona Ali Khalil

• October 11, 2016

“Those who seek to bestow legitimacy must themselves embody it, and those who invoke international law must themselves submit to it.” So spoke United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan at the 59th session of the UN General Assembly on Sept. 22, 2004. Annan’s statement should be understood to apply to the principal organs of …

WORLDVIEWS

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GOINGS-ON

Jane Holl Lute, US Security Expert, Is Now UN Adviser on Iranian Exiles

Benjamin Foldy

• January 14, 2014

With the appointment of Jane Holl Lute, an American, as his special adviser for relocating the residents of Camp Hurriya, located outside Baghdad in Iraq, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is showing a willingness to take major steps toward resolving a situation that has become an increasingly sore point for the Iraqi, Iranian and …

GOINGS-ON

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The UN Cafeteria: Nowhere Else to Go

Irwin Arieff

• April 1, 2013

They say that an army travels on its stomach. If the same is true of international diplomacy, the United Nations is in big trouble. The main UN cafeteria in New York recently sprang back to life as headquarters staff members started returning to the painstakingly renovated landmark Secretariat tower. But it appears the troops …

UN EATS

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The North Kosovo Obstacle to Peace

Yermi Brenner

• February 19, 2013

Thousands of people packed the streets of Pristina this past weekend, celebrating as Kosovo marked five years of independence. But in the municipalities of northern Kosovo, few people were rejoicing. Thirteen years after Slobodan Milosevic, the Serbian leader whose nationalist crusade set off the Balkan wars, withdrew his army from Kosovo, and three years …

General Assembly, Peace and Security

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BOOKS

Reasons to Love and Criticize the UN

A. Edward Elmendorf

• November 4, 2012

In his new book, “Living With the UN: American Responsibilities and International Order,” Kenneth Anderson forces readers who lean sympathetically toward the United Nations to consider why they support it despite its faults. On the other hand, the acerbic views of Anderson, a law professor at American University, about the UN are deeply colored by …

BOOKS, US-UN Relations

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WORLDVIEWS

Ban’s Second Term: It’s Time to Involve UN Diplomats

Helmut Volger

• March 26, 2012

BERLIN — Like his predecessors, the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon started his second term, in January, by presenting a program to the General Assembly and to the public, adorned with a momentous title: The Five Year Action Agenda, “The Future We Want.” It outlines in ambitious rhetoric the key areas where Ban thinks …

Secretary-General, WORLDVIEWS

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GOINGS-ON

Changes at the UN’s Upper Levels

PassBlue

• January 27, 2012

The United Nations World Food Program has named Ertharin Cousin of the United States to replace Josette Sheeran, also American, when Sheeran’s five-year term as executive director ends in April. And Dr. Margaret Chan, director general of the World Health Organization, based in Geneva, has been nominated for a second five-year term by the …