The Ugandan diplomat continues to make a case for his candidacy and says he is still getting “signals” to stay in the race to lead the UN. Olara Otunnu’s résumé is uniquely built for the role of UN secretary-general: as the man behind the Security Council straw polls, he presided over the Council in the…
Canada’s former deputy prime minister recalls businessmen raising the possibility of bribing Donald Trump, warns of a new era of transactional diplomacy and questions whether the United States can still be trusted as an ally. Buried in the more than 300 pages of Chrystia Freeland’s new book is an anecdote that might once have caused…
The Emirati diplomat’s entry into the race raises questions about Washington’s support, the UAE’s foreign policy and Latin America’s claim to the UN’s top job. Long rumored as a potential candidate to lead the United Nations, Emirati diplomat Lana Nusseibeh has finally thrown her hat in the ring at the eleventh hour. The 48-year-old candidate…
Former Senegalese president bows out a day after the Security Council’s sixth straw poll, citing a Council preference for a Latin American, and possibly female, candidate Former Senegalese President Macky Sall has withdrawn his bid to become the next UN Secretary-General. Sall’s campaign has struggled to gain traction from the start. In a statement released…
After finishing last in three Security Council straw polls, the Ecuadorian-Lebanese diplomat tells Envoy she has no intention of dropping out. Ivonne Baki is used to being an underdog. She ran unsuccessfully for president of Ecuador in 2002 and for director-general of UNESCO in 2009. “For me, it’s about the journey,” she told Envoy in…
The No. 2 candidate in the race to lead the United Nations told Envoy that recent reports about her Middle East record were intended to boost a rival—and sought to clarify her position on genocide. Ahead of what could be a decisive month in the race to appoint the next UN secretary-general, runner-up Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett…
Guterres championed Africa’s voice at the UN. Turning that advocacy into political results proved harder. “Even after 31 December, wherever I will be and whatever I will be doing, I can guarantee that at the centre of my concerns and my active solidarity, there will always be Africa,” he said. He was speaking at the…
From Iran to Gaza, Pakistan is betting that relationships across rival blocs can give middle powers greater diplomatic influence as the Security Council struggles to act. Pakistan entered its Security Council term carrying the baggage of its own regional rivalries. It may leave it arguing that those same geopolitical relationships have become an asset. As…
A decade after the UN’s most open secretary-general race, former candidates Susana Malcorra and Irina Bokova say the contest remains less an election than a diplomatic selection—one shaped by public scrutiny, private bargaining, and the veto power of the Security Council’s permanent five. The concept is eerily familiar: candidates gather in a television studio, talk…
Dear readers, In its 80 years of existence, the United Nations has had nine secretaries-general. This year, the Security Council and, ultimately, the General Assembly will decide who becomes the tenth. The UN’s first secretary-general, Trygve Lie, understood the burden of the office early. When he handed the job to Dag Hammarskjöld, he famously told…
Security Council diplomats backed a Gaza reconstruction body. What emerged became Donald Trump’s most powerful personal institution yet. It had been two years of conflict with no end in sight, and diplomats came to the inevitable conclusion that one country, and one country only, had the power to stop the hostilities in Gaza:…
From TikTok to Coney Island, the former German foreign minister did not come to New York City for a smooth ride. Ahead of her swearing-in ceremony in September 2025 as president of the U.N. General Assembly, Annalena Baerbock launched a TikTok page with an introductory post. In the video, Baerbock hails a cab, hops in…
“Space is not a technical issue anymore, it is a peace and security issue, and an economic issue…” Amal Mudallali remembers being fascinated by space for as long as she can remember. When she was a child in the early 1970s, she first heard the seed of skepticism that would later grow into a lifelong…
Actor William Shatner may have played the captain of a starship for years in the hit TV series and movie Star Trek, even the best fiction work about space exploration could not have prepared him for the life-changing experience he underwent when he traveled to space in 2021. “I went up into space, and when…
As global instability mounts, the stakes are high for the 79th Unit- ed Nations General Assembly week. While tensions in Europe and the Middle East continue to dominate the diplomatic agenda and shake up the global order, all eyes will be on New York in September for leaders to set the diplo- matic agenda for…
