Adam Day on why UN secretary-general candidates should engage beyond New York.
Tag: UN reform
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When President Donald Trump asked the UN General Assembly in September, “What is the purpose of the United Nations?” he wasn’t posing a philosophical question. He was announcing a policy shift. Weeks later, Ambassador Jeff Bartos addressed the General Assembly’s Fifth Committee, praising Secretary-General António Guterres’s proposed budget cuts as “only a beginning.” The Trump […]
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As the United Nations General Assembly enters its 80th session, the secretary-general has issued wide-ranging proposals under his latest report under the UN80 initiative, “Shifting Paradigms: United to Deliver,” aimed at streamlining, rationalizing, and reforming the UN system. While the proposals in the peace and security pillar are central to improving the UN, reforming the United […]
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The UN80 initiative was launched in March 2025 by the secretary-general with the objective of creating a more “agile, integrated, and equipped” organization able to respond to today’s challenges amid tightening resources. Over the last several weeks, the secretary-general has released reports under each of the three workstreams: efficiency and effectiveness, mandate implementation, and structural […]
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The UN secretary-general is now more or less finished with his part of the UN80 reform process. In the six months since he launched the initiative, António Guterres has produced three sets of proposals to (1) identify immediate administrative efficiencies, (2) review mandate implementation, and (3) reform the organization’s architecture. With the final proposals now […]
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When deciding how to tackle a specific challenge, the UN has multiple policy options: an “agenda,” a “roadmap,” a “code of conduct,” or perhaps a “compact.” It is this last option that UN officials working on the UN80 initiative have proposed to address the current crisis facing the UN humanitarian system, prompted by unprecedented funding […]
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World leaders gathered last week for the general debate and other high-level events to kick off the substantive work of the 80th session of the UN General Assembly. This high-level week comes at a time of unprecedented uncertainty about the future of the UN and the multilateral system. This is in large part because the United […]
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Today’s global challenges—including climate shocks, geopolitical conflicts, mass displacement, and the rapid spread of disruptive technologies—are more interconnected than at any point in the UN’s history. Addressing them demands a United Nations that works as a single, coherent system. The secretary-general’s new report on UN reform, “Shifting Paradigms: United to Deliver,” is the latest, most […]
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The 80th anniversary of the United Nations should have been a celebration. Instead, it has become a reckoning.At the heart of that reckoning is the Mandate Implementation Review (MIR), a quietly released but deeply consequential report that diagnoses a long-festering problem inside the UN system: mandate overload. Since 1946, more than 40,000 resolutions have been […]
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When the United Nations Charter was signed in San Francisco 80 years ago, the United States was not just the host—it was the architect. American leadership helped craft a vision of peace secured not through domination but through cooperation. “We the peoples,” the Charter begins—a declaration that global dignity, development, and security would be shared […]
