For more than five decades, Caribbean Community (CARICOM) member states have sought to turn their vulnerability as small states into collective strength. That effort is now under strain—perhaps like never before. The second Trump administration is prompting the bloc’s 14 sovereign member states to take fundamentally different approaches to exercising their agency—and convert it into […]
Analysis
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On September 23, 2026, the chief executives of OpenAI, Anthropic, and Hugging Face took seats at the UN Security Council. They were participating in a high-level briefing on artificial intelligence (AI) and international security convened by France during the General Assembly’s high-level week. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot chaired the meeting. Yoshua Bengio, co-chair of […]
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A broad-based political process is an essential element of a stable peace for Afghanistan. The Security Council recognized this in its refocused mandate for the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) in June 2026. This mandate tasks the mission with facilitating dialogue “between the relevant authorities in Afghanistan and other relevant stakeholders, including regional countries […]
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The precipitous decline in funding for humanitarian assistance has made headlines around the world. In Nigeria, reports indicate that reductions in the delivery of food assistance, nutrition programming, and health services have already affected hundreds of thousands of people. According to the 2026 Nigeria Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan (HNRP), 7.3 million people are already […]
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During the UN General Assembly in September 2025, a wave of countries—including Australia, Canada, France, Portugal, and the United Kingdom—officially recognized the State of Palestine, joining the 147 UN member states that had already done so.[1] Driven by mounting pressure to salvage the two-state solution and to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza, this marked a […]
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On September 16th, the UN released its second Global Risk Report, asking 1,300 people across government, business, civil society, and the UN system what stands in the way of managing 28 global risks. The most common answer was weak governance or coordination mechanisms, ahead of a lack of political consensus and a lack of trust […]
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On September 16th, at least 21 people were killed in Gaza City after a residential building collapsed. The building had been damaged during the war, but families decided to move back in because there was no alternative. According to the Norwegian Refugee Council, tent supplies are not entering Gaza. Caravans are barred. Israel has been […]
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The 81st session of the UN General Assembly is taking place under the theme “Restoring Trust, Managing Transformation.” Opening the session on September 8th, the incoming president of the General Assembly, Khalilur Rahman, cited a “widening trust deficit” that is “testing confidence in international institutions and collective action.”Concerns about trust in the UN are not […]
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Consent of the main parties to a conflict is both foundational and fundamental to UN peace operations. It provides the basis for the presence, purpose, and activities of UN field missions and distinguishes them from peace enforcement operations. Yet peace operations have increasingly faced a “crisis of consent,” impeding their operations and forcing several missions […]
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After 18 months of internal consultations and intergovernmental deliberations, it seems as if the only tangible outcome of the structural realignment track of the UN80 initiative—Workstream 3—will be the consolidation of the UN Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) and the UN System Staff College (UNSSC) into the UN Institute for Capability and Learning Innovation […]
