The Secretary-General of the United Nations is the creature of—and subservient to — the 193 member states who largely reign supreme in the world body. But, in reality, Antonio Guterres has been defiant and openly challenged one of the five permanent members of the Security Council lambasting Russia for its 17-month-old
Author: Thalif Deen, IPS
Guns for hire? A season for mercenaries
Just after a band of mercenaries tried to oust the government in the Maldives back in 1988, I asked a Maldivian diplomat, using a familiar military catch phrase, about the strength of his country’s “standing army.” “Standing army?”, the diplomat asked with mock surprise, and remarked perhaps half-jokingly, “We don’t even
World’s poor may not achieve a single development goal by 2030 if current trends continue
When the 193-member General Assembly adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development back in September 2015., it was aimed at transforming the world into an idealistic state of peace and economic prosperity. But eigwht years later, most of the world’s low-income countries (LICs) have been struggling to achieve even a single
A last-ditch effort to save high seas treaty from sinking
When the United Nations began negotiations on a legally binding treaty to protect and regulate the high seas, one diplomat pointedly remarked: “It’s a jungle out there”—characterizing a wide-open ocean degraded by illegal and over-fishing, plastics pollution, indiscriminate sea bed mining and the destruction of marine eco-systems. Although the origins of
Will the Ukraine war be resolved with talks or with tanks?
After much reluctance, the US and its Western allies last week agreed to provide Ukraine with some of the world’s most sophisticated battle tanks: American-made Abrams, German-made Leopards and British-made Challengers. But the question remains as to whether these weapons will make a decisive difference to Ukrainian armed forces fighting a
Security Council reforms move at the pace of a paralytic snail
The reform of the Security Council, the most powerful body at the United Nations, has remained a never-ending political saga. According to the President of the General Assembly, Csaba Kőrösi of Hungary, 43 years have passed since the question of Security Council reform first appeared on the UN agenda. “It has been
The decline and fall of democracy worldwide
A head of state who presided over an authoritarian regime in Southeast Asia, was once asked about rigged elections in his country. “I promised I will give you the right to vote” he said, “but I didn’t say anything about counting those votes.” That infamous quote, perhaps uttered half-jokingly, was rightly described
UN deploys unarmed weapon in humanitarian & peacekeeping operations
A sign outside the United Nations reads, perhaps half-seriously, that it is a “No Drone Zone”—and “launching, landing or operating Unmanned or Remote-Controlled aircraft in this area is prohibited”. The “warning” comes even as Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) – or drones – are some of the new weapons of war deployed
A climate summit following empty promises & funding failures
The COP 27 climate summit is taking place amid a rash of political, economic and environmental upheavals, including missed funding and emission targets, increased pollution and climate devastation, rising global inflation, cuts in Western development assistance and the negative after-effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The
