The annual United Nations summit of world leaders known as the General Assembly general debate is often dismissed as a pointless exercise in bloviation that does little more than snarl midtown Manhattan traffic and fill the city’s bars and boutiques with an army of delegates and spouses seeking relief from the tedium.
Bleak house. But it is an important venue for taking stock of the state of the world, and the ability of its leaders to work together to solve problems. The mood over the past week has never been so bleak, and the list of global woes has become all too familiar: War in Ukraine, scary weather, soaring inequality, crippling indebtedness, and a sinking feeling that the Sustainable Development Goals, or SDGs, are beyond reach.
Unhinged. In his opening address in the General Assembly chamber, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres described a world that has grown “unhinged” and its leaders utterly incapable of rowing together to address a list of existential challenges. Later, in the U.N. Security Council session on Ukraine, he took Russia to task, accusing Moscow not only of violating the U.N. charter and killing thousands of innocent civilians but of deepening geopolitical fault lines.
About the author
Colum Lynch
Colum Lynch is an award-winning reporter and Senior Global Reporter for Devex. He covers the intersection of development, diplomacy, and humanitarian relief at the United Nations and beyond. Prior to Devex, Colum reported on foreign policy and national security for Foreign Policy Magazine and the Washington Post. Colum was awarded the 2011 National Magazine Award for digital reporting for his blog Turtle Bay. He has also won an award for groundbreaking reporting on the U.N.’s failure to protect civilians in Darfur.
