• UN Security Council

    GEOPOLITICS

    Richard Falk on Palestine, Israel and the UN in the Trump Age

    by  • July 24, 2018 • Geopolitics, Human Rights, Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Secretary-General, US Foreign Relations, US-UN Relations • 

    Richard Falk is a well-known American academic and writer who from 2008 until 2014 was the United Nations special rapporteur on human rights in Palestine since 1967, a post that invariably invites controversy. For Falk, who has never been shy of taking provocative stances, the work compelled him to declare, among other things, that...

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    GEOPOLITICS

    Pompeo’s Visit to the UN Caps a Week of Dizzying Global Politics

    by  • July 20, 2018 • Geopolitics, Human Rights, Security Council, US Foreign Relations, US-UN Relations • 

    Capping a week of neck-wrenching U-turns by the president of the United States after his pro-Russia speech in Helsinki on Monday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met with the 15-member United Nations Security Council in New York on July 20 — to discuss North Korea. Pompeo and Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the...

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    SECURITY COUNCIL PRESIDENCY

    Sweden’s Priorities in the Security Council: Being Prepared, Including for the World Cup

    by  • July 5, 2018 • Climate and Environment, Security Council, Security Council Presidency • 

    Welcome to our new column, Security Council Presidency, providing insight into the United Nations Security Council member sitting in the rotating seat of the president every month, starting in July with Sweden and its ambassador, Olof Skoog. The column is meant to be an informative capsule of not only the country’s ambassador but also...

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    NIKKI HALEY WATCH

    Oh, Yes, France Is a Permanent Member of the UN Security Council Too

    by  • June 9, 2018 • Nikki Haley Watch, Security Council, US Foreign Relations, US-UN Relations • 

    The last few weeks have been rough for Nikki Haley, the ambassador of the United States to the United Nations. On June 1, she led the US delegation in submitting a draft Security Council resolution condemning the militant group Hamas for its perceived role in inciting violence by Gazans against Israel. Only the US...

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    For Victims of Sexual Violence in War, Stigma Can Kill

    by  • April 16, 2018 • Gender-Based Violence, International Justice, Myanmar, Peace and Security, Refugees • 1 Comment

    In a year in which swaths of territory were liberated in Iraq and Syria from the grip of ISIS, enabling the release of women and girls and others from the extremists, the United Nations’ annual report on conflict-related sexual violence highlights the stigma that the victims encounter — from physical pain to profound depression...

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    P5 MONITOR

    Trump’s Opposition to the Iran Nuclear Deal: A Zero-Sum Game?

    by  • April 4, 2018 • P5 Monitor, Security Council, US Foreign Relations • 

    President Donald Trump’s mid-May deadline for renegotiating the terms of the nuclear arms deal with Iran is rapidly approaching. So far, his words and actions seem to isolate the United States from its European and Asian allies while straining his credibility as a negotiator, which he needs for the scheduled meeting, also in May,...

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    NIKKI HALEY WATCH

    A Useful Mideast Peace Plan? Don’t Hold Your Breath

    by  • March 7, 2018 • Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Middle East, Nikki Haley Watch, Security Council • 2 Comments

    Nikki Haley is appealing to the Palestinian people for “negotiation and compromise” in search of Middle East peace, denying that Washington is biased against them even as she warns their leaders that holding out will “lead to nothing but hardship.” But the latest pitch for Palestinian engagement by Haley, the United States ambassador to...

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    NIKKI HALEY WATCH

    How Stormy Was It? The First Year of Trump, Haley and Guterres at the UN

    by  • January 28, 2018 • Nikki Haley Watch, Nuclear Disarmament, Secretary-General, US Foreign Relations, US-UN Relations • 

    LONDON — President Donald Trump marked a year at the helm of the United States on Jan. 20. Secretary-General António Guterres marked a year at the helm of the United Nations on Jan. 1. How has their first year gone relative to the UN? The short answer is: not as badly as you might...

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    NIKKI HALEY WATCH

    The US and UN Sanctions: Outwitted, Outlasted, Outplayed?

    by  • January 11, 2018 • Middle East, Nikki Haley Watch, Nuclear Disarmament, Security Council, US-UN Relations • 1 Comment

    With the Security Council’s unanimous vote to expand United Nations sanctions on North Korea on Dec. 22, President Trump appeared to add another high point to a victorious final week of 2017 based on his tax reform in United States Congress. But appearances deceive, as delegations’ statements in the Council demonstrated before adopting Resolution...

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    WORLDVIEWS

    Unprepared and Unprotected: UN Peacekeepers’ Lives Must Be Saved

    by  • January 9, 2018 • Africa, Asia, Peace and Security, Security Council, UN Peacekeeping, WORLDVIEWS • 

    The 15 deaths and 43 injuries to United Nations troop personnel in the North Kivu Province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo in December would not, sadly, have surprised those of us who have served in peace enforcement missions with the UN. These are difficult and dangerous places, where rebels have many advantages...

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    WORLDVIEWS

    Leave the UN’s Human-Rights Treaty System Alone

    by  • January 7, 2018 • Human Rights, WORLDVIEWS • 1 Comment

    The United Nations Charter requires each and every member state to discharge its obligations by faithfully carrying out norms of legally binding international human-rights law. These may be norms of international customary law, those contained in treaties or those flowing from general principles of international law. The human-rights provisions in the Charter were amplified...

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    NIKKI HALEY WATCH

    Will the Real Nikki Haley Please Stand Up?

    by  • December 14, 2017 • Gender-Based Violence, Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Middle East, Nikki Haley Watch, US Foreign Relations, US-UN Relations • 1 Comment

    Nikki Haley must have raised eyebrows at the White House with her bold off-the-cuff defense of the women complaining that Donald Trump sexually abused them before the election. “ny woman who has felt violated or felt mistreated in any way, they have every right to speak up,” Haley said on the CBS talk show...

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    GEOPOLITICS

    Trump’s Jerusalem Move Sparks Backlash From Powerful UN Members

    by  • December 8, 2017 • Geopolitics, Security Council, US Foreign Relations, US-UN Relations • 

    In a rare step by two of America’s closest allies, Britain and France called for an emergency meeting of the 15 members of the United Nations Security Council to air their concerns over the decision by Donald Trump of the United States to endorse Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. The emergency meeting on...

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    WORLDVIEWS

    After 50 Years of UN Sanctions, Is the System Broken?

    by  • December 1, 2017 • Libya, Nuclear Disarmament, Peace and Security, Security Council, WORLDVIEWS • 

    With only few of the current United Nations sanctions cases accomplishing their political objectives, it is not unreasonable to wonder why the system seems broken. As the 50th anniversary of the first use of this important political tool is duly noted, the short answer is that nothing is wrong with sanctions. The problem is with...

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    NIKKI HALEY WATCH

    These Female Students in Bangladesh Want the Power Seat at the UN

    by  • October 1, 2017 • Asia, Education, Nikki Haley Watch • 1 Comment

    If you want to understand how Donald Trump’s America is being perceived by women in the global South, my students are a good place to start. I teach international relations at an all-female liberal arts college in Chittagong, Bangladesh, which follows a Western curriculum and is attended by 700 enthusiastic young women from 16...

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    NIKKI HALEY WATCH

    The US Ambassador’s Love Affair With TV News Shows

    by  • August 25, 2017 • Journalists, Nikki Haley Watch, Nuclear Disarmament, US Foreign Relations, US-UN Relations • 

    Nikki Haley has been appearing on American TV news programs an awful lot lately, so what gives? Some observers point to Haley as a refreshing and stable face amid an unpredictable White House and uncannily quiet secretary of state, while others herald her visibility as a sign of higher political ambitions. Another possibility is...

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    NIKKI HALEY WATCH

    A New Duet for Nikki Haley and Trump

    by  • July 10, 2017 • Human Rights, Nikki Haley Watch, US-UN Relations • 1 Comment

    Nearly six months into her United Nations assignment, Ambassador Nikki Haley is aligning herself more decisively with President Donald Trump, defending some of his most controversial and unpopular moves. It is a critical diplomatic time for the White House and for Haley, who is viewed around the UN mostly as a politician with big...

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    TOPIC: WOMEN

    Nikki Haley, Seeking the Right Style to Make Big Statements

    by  • May 20, 2017 • US Foreign Relations, US-UN Relations, Women • 2 Comments

    If Nikki Haley is dressing for attention, honestly, it would be hard to fault her. One of the few women named to President Trump’s administration, Haley, a former governor of South Carolina who is the ambassador to the United Nations, has been set adrift in a different region of the country, in foreign policy...

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    TAKE A LOOK

    Demand for Lower Peacekeeping Dues to Pit the US Against the UN

    by  • April 16, 2017 • Peace and Security, Take a Look, UN Peacekeeping, US Foreign Relations, US-UN Relations • 

    The Trump administration, buoyed by a powerful anti-internationalist movement among conservative Republicans in the United States Congress, is headed for a new confrontation with the United Nations over who decides how much the US should pay for peacekeeping. With a tentative US budget deadline of April 28 fast approaching, it is almost certain that...

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    GEOPOLITICS

    Can António Guterres Fend Off Trump’s War on the UN?

    by  • April 10, 2017 • Geopolitics, Secretary-General, Security Council, Syria, US Foreign Relations, US-UN Relations • 

    When António Guterres was chosen by the United Nations Security Council in October to become the next leader of the UN, neither he nor anyone else could have predicted precisely who would be commanding the Oval Office of the White House in January 2017, just as Guterres’s term opened. Now that Donald Trump has...

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