The UN has a solid track record when it comes to environmental treaties. To be sure, governments are still far short of meeting the Paris Agreement goals, and the Conference of Parties (COP) process to close that gap is woefully insufficient. However, when it comes to crafting more narrowly targeted environmental treaties, the United Nations has been broadly successful. The 1987 Montreal Protocol is probably the best example of a significant United Nations environmental treaty. This treaty created regulations around certain chemicals that, at the time, were burning a hole in the Earth’s ozone ..read more

The single largest humanitarian crisis in the world turns one year old today. Since a full-scale civil war erupted in Sudan exactly one year ago, some 8 million people have been displaced. This includes nearly 2 million who fled as refugees to bordering countries that can hardly handle the sudden influx of desperate people leaving their homes. The United Nations is now warning of famine in parts of Darfur, in western Sudan. According to the United Nations Office of Humanitarian Affairs, in the last two weeks alone, the number of newly displaced people increased by about 107,800 women, men, and ..read more

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency, better known as UNRWA, was established in 1949 to support Palestinians displaced during the first Arab-Israeli war. Today, it provides services and humanitarian relief to nearly 6 million Palestinians in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the West Bank and of course Gaza. There has always been some tension between Israel and UNRWA, but since the October 7th attacks and the Israel war in Gaza, Israeli leaders have sought to dismantle UNRWA all together. Following Israeli accusations that 12 out of UNRWA’s 13,000 staff in Gaza took part in the October 7 ..read more

By Aishwarya Machani Never before have more people had more opportunities for political expression. 4.2 billion people worldwide will have a chance to hit the polls this year, making it the biggest election year in history. And social media now gives 4.9 billion people worldwide a platform to voice their political opinions. Yet young people, who form a majority of the world’s population and who are set to inherit the consequences of today’s political decisions, don’t believe these opportunities are enough. For starters, the once shining promise of social media has been dulled by internet shutd ..read more

The Security Council finally passed a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. The resolution was crafted by the so-called “E-10.” These are the ten non-veto-wielding elected members of the Security Council who can sometimes band together and shame the P-5 into taking action they might otherwise veto. In this case, the United States cast a decisive abstention, marking the first time that the Biden administration opted not to veto a Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. The resolution cleverly adopts the formula long insisted upon by the United ..read more

The Commission on the Status of Women concludes this week at the United Nations. The CSW, as it is known, is one of the major annual events at UN headquarters. In terms of sheer size and number of participants it is second only to the opening of the UN General Assembly in September. But unlike UNGA, it rarely gets much media attention, at least not the kind of attention commensurate for a diplomatic gathering of its size. This year, it got almost no media write ups in any major english language outlet. For such a key conference, it really flies under the radar. Joining me to explain the k ..read more

The security and humanitarian situation in Haiti has deteriorated sharply over the last several days. The country had been ensnared in an enduring crisis following the 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse, but now faces a critical juncture as gang violence surges and state authority wanes. Amid this chaos, Prime Minister Ariel Henry signaled his intent to step down. Meanwhile, an international intervention to be lead by Kenyan police remains in limbo. Despite being approved by the UN several months ago, the mission is struggling to get off the ground. My interview guest Renata Se ..read more

Western countries have seized hundreds of billions of dollars of Russian assets following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine two years ago. Since then, the question of what to do with those assets has loomed large over debates about Ukraine. My interview guest Vladimir Milov is a former Deputy Minister of Energy of the Russian Federation and now a Russian opposition politician. He was an associate of the late Alexei Navalny. When we spoke last week he made a compelling case for the expropriation of Russian assets as a means to aid Ukraine’s reconstruction efforts. Milov explains how a web ..read more

Alexander Ward ia national security reporter for POLITICO and author of the book “The Internationalists: The Fight to Restore American Foreign Policy After Trump.” We discuss the implications of Mitch McConnell stepping down as the leader of the Senate Republicans and delve into the key themes and insights from Ward’s important new book. We explore the concept of the “foreign policy for the middle class” and how it shaped the Biden administration’s approach to foreign policy. Ward also examines the decision-making process behind the Afghanistan withdrawal and the administration’s response to R ..read more

In this Global Dispatches podcast episode, Clemence Landers of the Center for Global Development discusses the upcoming replenishments of several global development funds and the potential challenges they face. She highlights the significance of the International Development Association (IDA), the World Bank’s branch that provides grants and concessional loans to the world’s poorest countries. Landers explains the importance of IDA’s replenishment and the need for increased funding to support the development priorities of these countries. She also explores the competition among different fund ..read more