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Christian Wenaweser is a legend around the United Nations. He has served as Liechtenstein's Ambassador to the United Nations since 2002 and, despite representing one of the world's smallest states, has an impressive record of diplomatic achievements. He played an instrumental role in the development of the International Criminal Court, including efforts to define the crime of aggression. He has also spearheaded several important initiatives at the General Assembly, including the creation of a mechanism to collect and preserve evidence of war crimes in Syria and the "veto initiative," under which any veto at the Security Council triggers a meeting of the General Assembly. These may sound like fairly technical diplomatic maneuvers, but they represent something much bigger: an innovative way of thinking about how small and middle powers can work together to overcome great-power gridlock and achieve substantive goals at the United Nations. We spoke one week after UNGA — a defining theme of which was the banding together of small states and middle powers in the face of intransigence from some of the world's great powers. This included the launch of a new Partnership for Multilateralism and a political declaration on frontier AI, both of which Liechtenstein joined. In our conversation, Ambassador Wenaweser explains the emerging dynamics of an alliance between middle powers and small states at the UN, what they can actually accomplish, and why they these countries are suddenly asserting themselves. Our conversation is free for all, and was produced in partnership with [Re]Group, a substack from the UN Foundation.

My guest today is Jagan Chapagain, Secretary General of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, the IFRC, which is calling on countries to adopt a new treaty that would set standards and rules of the road for helping people caught in natural disasters. We spoke on the day of the massive flash floods in Nepal, which he argues underscore the need to streamline how governments and NGOs cooperate when a sudden disaster strikes.

President Trump delivered his annual address to the United Nations General Assembly, kicking off a week of speeches from presidents and prime ministers from over 100 countries. In this special edition of Global Dispatches, I am joined by Anjali Dayal, my To Save Us From Hell co-host and a professor of international relations at Fordham University, and Harshani Dharmadasa, Senior Director at the UN Foundation and a veteran of the UN system. We kick off with an extended conversation about President Trump's speech to the United Nations, including what it says about the future of U.S. foreign policy and American engagement with the United Nations. We then turn to a number of the key themes emerging from speeches, meetings, and events around New York this week. We wrap up with a discussion of António Guterres's legacy at the United Nations and a speech he delivered that we all agreed encapsulates his 10-year tenure as UN Secretary-General.

UN week is here. Hundreds of presidents and prime ministers are headed to New York this week for the annual opening of the United Nations General Assembly. The presence of so many world leaders all in the same place at the same time makes UNGA the most important week of the diplomatic calendar. I'm joined today by Elizabeth Cousens, President and CEO of the United Nations Foundation who previews some of the key speeches, stories, trends and moments that will define UNGA81. We kick off discussing the leadership transition at the top of the United Nations before turning to some of the key issues she expects to drive the diplomatic agenda — including AI, Iran and and an international order teetering on the edge.

Mark here! I just wanted to talk directly to you about my comings and going this UNGA and preview for you my plans for covering the UN.  Some relevent links: 50 % discounted subsciption to support the show! Support the show at full price! Contact me!

Haiti's security crisis is deepening as armed gangs expand their control over territory and daily life, while a new UN-backed Gang Suppression Force begins to deploy amid major questions about whether it can actually reverse the country's descent into violence. Diego Da Rin of the International Crisis Group joins me to explain how Haiti reached this point, what the gangs are doing to consolidate their power, what the new international force is supposed to accomplish, and what it means that the United States is deporting Haitians back into this increasingly dangerous environment.

We are just two weeks away from the largest diplomatic gathering of the year, as hundreds of presidents and prime ministers descend on the United Nations for the opening of the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly. In this special episode of our sister podcast, To Save Us From Hell, Anjali and Mark preview the speeches they are most anticipating, discuss some notable attendees—and a few key snubs—and lay out why this particular UNGA matters at this particular moment in global politics. The full episode is available exclusively to our paying subscribers. We’re running our annual September discount, using the links above.

The Iran war is spilling over into Yemen. And now, the country is on the verge of a full-blown civil war that could drag in Saudi Arabia, Iran — and potentially the United States. Over the last several weeks, the Iran-backed Houthis and the Saudi-backed internationally recognized government have been clashing at a pace and with a fury not seen since a 2022 ceasefire brought a halt to a devastating eight-year civil war. The war in Iran has changed the dynamics of the region in ways that have left Yemen poised to become the next place where the conflict spreads. My guest today, Alexandra Stark, is a political scientist at RAND who studies the region. She is the author of the book The Yemen Model and recently wrote a New York Times op-ed about the prospect of Yemen becoming a new front in a widening Middle East conflict. We kick off by discussing recent events on the ground in Yemen, their connection to the U.S.-Iran war, and the mechanisms through which Yemen could once again become engulfed in a devastating civil war — one fueled by Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United States.

Zambia's election is raising fresh questions about the country's democratic trajectory — even as its vast copper reserves make it increasingly important to the global economy and to strategic competition between the United States and China. In this episode, Zaynab Hoosen of Pangea Risk explains the political tensions surrounding the election, Zambia's economic outlook, and why the global race for copper is putting the country in the geopolitical spotlight.

Oman has long played one of the Middle East's most unusual diplomatic roles: maintaining close ties with rivals and quietly creating space for enemies to talk. Secret U.S.-Iran negotiations in Muscat helped pave the way for the 2015 nuclear deal, and Oman has continued to serve as an intermediary on prisoner exchanges, regional conflicts, and nuclear diplomacy. But the Iran war has thrust Oman into a much more precarious position. Sitting directly across the Strait of Hormuz from Iran, the small Gulf state is no longer just a mediator on the sidelines. It is now deeply exposed to a conflict that threatens shipping, regional security, and the very diplomatic relationships Oman has spent decades cultivating. I'm joined by Tyler Parker, a professor at Mercer University who studies the foreign policies of the Gulf states, to discuss how Oman became the region's indispensable intermediary, why the Strait of Hormuz has made Muscat so important to the current crisis, and whether Oman could ultimately help create a path toward ending the war.

Last month, a Russian drone flew toward a gas station in the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia. It crashed into a wall and exploded, killing three civilians. What made this strike different — and potentially a major turning point in modern warfare — is what investigators found afterward. According to reporting by The New York Times, the drone was equipped with an artificial intelligence system that allowed it to navigate toward the gas station and, once it got close, apparently choose its precise target on its own. Ukrainian officials and experts who examined the wreckage say the drone carried the telltale signs of being a fully autonomous, AI-powered weapon. If that assessment is correct, it represents a disturbing new threshold in the evolution of the war in Ukraine — and warfare more broadly: a weapon using AI to autonomously identify and attack a target, with lethal consequences. The day after The New York Times report, UN Secretary-General António Guterres and the International Committee of the Red Cross renewed their call for states to establish specific prohibitions and restrictions on autonomous weapon systems. "We are now dangerously close to crossing a moral red line: the autonomous targeting of humans by machines," Guterres said. Given this development, I wanted to revisit a conversation I recorded last year with Anna Hehir of the Future of Life Institute. We talked about lethal autonomous weapons, what it means for a machine to make targeting decisions without meaningful human control, and, crucially, whether diplomacy can prevent these systems from becoming a routine feature of warfare.

The United Nations is in the midst of selecting its next Secretary-General — and the race to succeed António Guterres just got more interesting. Last week, the Security Council held a straw poll to test the viability of the eight women and men vying to become Secretary-General in January. The results: we have a new frontrunner, though her apparent lead is narrow. Meanwhile, some candidates once considered frontrunners now look like long shots. On this episode of our sister podcast, To Save Us From Hell,  Mark Leon Goldberg and Anjali Dayal dissect the results of the straw poll and discuss the latest developments in the Secretary-General race You can unlock full access to To Save Us From Hell with a paid subscription --> https://www.globaldispatches.org/

The United Nations is in the midst of selecting its next Secretary-General — and the race to succeed António Guterres just got more interesting. Last week, the Security Council held a straw poll to test the viability of the eight women and men vying to become Secretary-General in January. The results: we have a new frontrunner, though her apparent lead is narrow. Meanwhile, some candidates once considered frontrunners now look like long shots. On this episode of our sister podcast, To Save Us From Hell, Mark Leon Goldberg and Anjali Dayal dissect the results of the straw poll and discuss the latest developments in the Secretary-General race

Kelsey Norman is a Fellow for the Middle East and Director of the Women's Rights, Human Rights, and Refugees Program at Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy. Her new book, Aiding Autocrats: Migration Management, Governance and Repression in Africa, examines how wealthy countries increasingly use foreign aid to persuade other governments to stop migrants before they reach Europe or the United States—and the unintended political consequences of those policies. In this episode, Kelsey explains what she calls "migration management aid" and how it has shaped relationships with countries including Turkey, Libya, and Rwanda. We also discuss whether more recent policies, including the Trump administration's deportation agreements with countries such as Eswatini, fit into this broader pattern. The conversation then turns to one of the book's central arguments: that outsourcing migration control can undermine democracy and good governance by strengthening authoritarian governments and giving them new resources and leverage. We conclude by discussing whether there is a better way for wealthy countries to cooperate with governments on migration without reinforcing repression or sacrificing human rights.

Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett is a Guyanese diplomat and candidate for Secretary-General of the United Nations. If selected, she would become both the first woman and the first person of Indigenous descent to lead the world body. She joins Mark for a substantive conversation about her vision for the UN at a moment of profound strain on the multilateral system. Drawing on her experience representing Guyana on the Security Council, Rodrigues-Birkett discusses what she learned about the UN's strengths and limitations in preventing and resolving conflict—and what she would do differently as Secretary-General. She also lays out her approach to global development and global health, and makes the case for diplomacy and international cooperation as essential tools for tackling the challenges ahead.