The United Nations was created, its charter states, to “save succeeding generations from the scourge of war”. Donald Trump used his address to the general assembly to threaten Iran, another member state, with annihilation again. The charter also speaks of the obligations of international law. On Venezuela, Mr Trump gloated that “to the victor belong the spoils”. His speech in New York on Tuesday might be regarded as an improvement on last year’s only in that it was not an explicit, full-scale attack on the UN itself, merely on its founding principles.
The absences this year are perhaps as telling as the US president’s hostile presence. Vladimir Putin has not attended for more than a decade. Nor has Xi Jinping – but the snub is more striking as he is in Washington to meet the US president. India’s Narendra Modi is not present; nor are Cyril Ramaphosa, Bola Tinubu or Abdel Fatah al-Sisi – the leaders of Africa’s three giants, South Africa, Nigeria and Egypt. While their reasons are various, the gaps speak collectively to Mr Trump’s wrecking capability and the broader challenges faced by the UN.
In a world where “cracks have become canyons”, to quote António Guterres, the body is more necessary than ever, and under greater strain. The outgoing secretary general has struggled with a “might is right” world: an authoritarian resurgence, the rising tide of conflict and a deadlocked security council. Mr Trump sought to supplant the UN with his “Board of Peace” for Gaza before largely losing interest. Even the biggest champions of multilateralism, such as Canada’s Mark Carney, are looking primarily to other mechanisms rather than UN reform.
With extremely limited powers, secretary generals usually fall into mediator or activist roles. Critics argue that Mr Guterres should have been more hands-on in diplomacy, in conflicts such as Sudan, as he was in brokering a Black Sea grain deal in 2022. But he has been a powerful voice of conscience: early to raise the threats posed by AI, passionate in calling for climate action and heartfelt on the suffering in Gaza, Ukraine and beyond. He has also kept the organisation on its feet – no mean feat given the disappearance of essential US funding (though Washington is now paying some of its debt).
The first female secretary general is long overdue and the informal regional rotation would suggest that a Latin American or Caribbean figure may succeed him; Rebeca Grynspan of Costa Rica and Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett of Guyana have been frontrunners. But major powers may be biding their time, with serious contenders still to emerge. Observers think that there is a real possibility that a successor may not be agreed before Mr Guterres’s departure date of 31 December, underlining the UN’s challenges.
Yet it remains an essential forum, not least for smaller countries to coordinate and campaign – resulting in important action on issues from landmines to global heating and its consequences. And major powers will eventually have to recognise that the case for security council reform, stressed again by Mr Guterres, cannot be ignored for ever. The charter reminds us that the UN was born from the desperation engendered by two world wars rather than a utopian dream. It endures not because of glorious successes, nor because it has avoided glaring failures, but because a world without it would be far worse. The troubles it faces are all the more reason to defend it.
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