As militaries race to deploy cheaper and more lethal drones, Joachim Kleinmann argues that the humanitarian system is still failing to confront what they mean for civilians. Every week, another update about drones makes news headlines: How they are reshaping the battlefield. How cheap they are. How a $500 commercial quadcopter can now take out…
With elections looming in Israel and new leadership on the horizon at the UN, an outgoing Israeli diplomat examines what has driven the two sides apart—and what it would take to repair their relationship. I arrived in New York to start my position at the Mission of Israel to the UN in the summer of…
As the UAE faces accusations of fueling atrocities in Sudan, a Sudanese writer examines Lana Nusseibeh’s personal role in defending Abu Dhabi against allegations of arming the RSF and lobbying European lawmakers over their response to the war—and questions her candidacy for UN secretary-general. After months of speculation, the United Arab Emirates recently nominated its…
At a moment of profound geopolitical rivalry, Ecuador’s UN ambassador makes the case for persistence, bridge-building and greater responsibility from the P5. In July 2023, consultations on Haiti had come to a hard stop and a veto was looming. Inside the Consultations Room, the divisions were clear. Ecuador, serving with the United States as co-penholder…
After attending her first UN General Assembly, a veteran conflict analyst sees a path back to relevance: listen to the Global South, confront the dangers of AI in warfare and embrace more pragmatic peacemaking. This was my first UN General Assembly. After hearing so many colleagues describe the week’s madness, I approached the week as…
As Trump takes aim at international courts and Israel rejects allegations of genocide in Gaza, the Nobel Committee honors a jurist who has spent her career defending international law. Of all the people Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu would have wanted to see win the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize, Navi Pillay must have been near…
From climate negotiations to diplomatic mediation and the UN Security Council, smaller countries are turning coalitions, geography and multilateral institutions into power—just as great-power rivalry threatens the rules that protect them. In a world once again being shaped by coercion, military power and spheres of influence, small states would appear to have the most to…
Ahead of a fourth Security Council straw poll, a former Caribbean ambassador argues that the next secretary-general should come not simply from Latin America and the Caribbean, but from the Caribbean itself. The selection of a secretary-general is usually discussed in terms of regional rotation and professional experience. Much less is said about outlook. Yet…
The next UN chief’s first year will be a test of whether the institution can still deliver in an age of conflict, financial strain and geopolitical paralysis. Over the past months, the candidates vying to become the next UN secretary-general have fielded hundreds of questions across a series of debates and public appearances. But…
The candidates to lead the United Nations all have views on AI policy, but the institution’s survival will depend on something harder: deploying it from within. The field is uneven. The world is already being reorganized around artificial intelligence. At the UN, the conversation still focuses largely on regulation: frameworks, safeguards, treaties, governance principles. Those…
A female secretary-general would not automatically transform the UN’s record on women’s rights, Lisa Marie Vickers argues, but after 80 years of male leadership, her appointment would carry urgent symbolic weight for an institution built on equality. Campaigning is in full swing as nominated candidates compete to be the tenth Secretary-General of the United Nations….
The race to succeed UN Secretary‑General António Guterres is often treated as a personnel question. In reality, it is something far more consequential: a test of whether the office of secretary‑general can still matter politically at all. When Norway’s Trygve Lie, the first secretary‑general of the United Nations, welcomed his successor Dag Hammarskjöld in…
Reformers hoped geopolitical divisions would weaken the P5’s hold over the secretary-general selection. Instead, the veto powers are closing ranks. The selection process for the new United Nations secretary-general is not just a competition between the individual candidates. It is also a contest for power among the UN’s member states. On one side of this…
Humanitarian assistance has kept millions afloat. But without a political strategy that reaches beyond the Taliban, Afghanistan’s deeper crisis will remain unresolved. Five years after the Taliban returned to power, millions of Afghans remain trapped in overlapping humanitarian, economic, political, and human rights crises. While international attention has shifted to other global crises, Afghanistan has…
The race to choose the next Secretary-General has no shortage of qualified women. The question is whether the UN’s most powerful states are prepared to support a woman to lead. In 2016, seven of the 13 candidates for secretary-general were women. The UN still chose a man. This year, as the UN marks its 80th…
After the Port Arthur massacre, Australia rewrote its gun laws in 12 days. The United States, after decades of mass shootings, is still trapped in grief without action. On a Sunday afternoon in the Broad Arrow Cafe at Port Arthur, Australia, the former penal colony on the Tasmanian coast had become a tourist destination…
