UN gathers amid its 80th anniversary and a ‘free fall’

When world leaders converge on New York City this week for the annual gathering of the UN General Assembly, the organisation will be observing its 80th anniversary. But the mood is far from celebratory, as wars rage around the world, a budget crisis looms and questions abound about whether the UN is even relevant anymore.

Year after year, UN officials and world leaders use the annual gathering to put forth lofty ideas and offer elaborate road maps for change. But tangible progress remains stubbornly elusive.

Russia’s war against Ukraine is more than three years old. The Israel-Hamas conflict in the Gaza Strip has been raging for nearly two years. And the world is still nowhere near achieving its goals on development or a solution for climate change. Even the United Nations’ global humanitarian aid work — one of the few areas where the organisation has continued to excel and lead the world — is now threatened by budget cuts, donor apathy and staff reductions.

“We can actually say we are in an organisation that is in sort of a free fall,” said Richard Gowan, the UN director for the International Crisis Group, adding that this week is not “going to offer us clear answers to all the UN’s problems, but it may give us a more acute sense exactly how difficult the situation is.”

Still, the annual meeting is a big stage. In addition to President Donald Trump, more than 140 world leaders and senior officials and delegations from Russia, Ukraine, China, Iran, Syria, Israel and North Korea will convene in one place for what diplomats call the World Cup of diplomacy. It will happen against the backdrop of wars in Ukraine, Sudan and Gaza. Israel’s conduct in Gaza, and Palestinian suffering and starvation, are expected to be among the themes dominating this year’s gathering.

On the first day of the meet, the idea of Palestinian statehood will take centre stage at a conference co-hosted by France and Saudi Arabia. There, France is expected to formally recognise Palestine as a state, joining most of the other UN member states that already do. Australia, Britain and Canada did so Sunday, just before the General Assembly.

But Israel and the United States oppose the move, with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio saying it will only make Hamas “feel more emboldened.” He warned that a fresh push for Palestinian statehood could provoke an Israeli backlash.

Trump will also figure prominently at this year’s gathering, with a speaking slot early Tuesday, the first day of speeches. He returns to the United Nations podium as he has been wielding power in unilateral fashion at home and abroad. His relationship with the United Nations has
long been fraught, but he has not completely dismissed it.

“There are great hopes for it but it’s not being well run; to be honest, they are not doing the job,” Trump said in February of the international body. “They’ve got to get their act together.”

Diplomats and UN officials say they will be closely watching Trump’s address to the General Assembly for clues on how his administration intends to engage with the United Nations in the coming year. Trump has ordered a review of US interactions with the organisation, slashed funding to many of its programmes and withdrawn from multiple UN agencies as well as from the Paris Agreement on global warming.

Dorothy Shea, the acting US ambassador to the UN, told a reception she hosted for the General Assembly that “the United States approaches this session with a clear vision, rooted in three enduring priorities: peace, sovereignty and liberty.”

UN Secretary-General António Guterres said last week at a news conference that he would be “delighted” to meet Trump. The two men have not met or spoken since Trump took office in January, despite several outreach attempts by Guterres, according to two diplomats and a senior UN official.

Seemingly appealing to Trump’s affinity for playing peacemaker, Guterres suggested the two leaders could work together in novel ways to resolve global conflicts. He said the United Nations possessed contacts, experience and expertise but had no mechanism to enforce pressure on countries or grant rewards.

The United States, however, “has carrots and sticks,” he said. “So in some situations, if you are able to combine the two, I think we can have a very effective way to make sure that some peace processes at least can lead to a successful result.”

The United Nations has repeatedly shown itself to be unable to stem conflict. That’s because conflict resolution and prevention is the work of the UN Security Council, where geopolitical divisions among world powers cripple its work.

This year, anxiety over the organisation’s finances is also palpable. The United Nations is currently short on cash, because countries are delaying payment of their mandatory dues or not paying at all. Separately, it is also facing a budget crisis, which could prevent it from running its agencies and peacekeeping missions, after cuts from member states — especially from the United States, which has been the UN’s top donor.

Other big donors such as China, Japan and the European Union have so far not increased their financial contributions to compensate for the loss of the US funding. China also delayed its UN dues payment this year.

Robert A Wood, a former deputy ambassador to the UN during the Biden administration, said that the budget crisis amounted to a “five-alarm fire for the UN. We don’t know if a fire crew is coming to the rescue: It should be the United States, but it is causing some of the fire.”

Guterres has tried to preempt the looming crisis with a reform plan called UN80, which calls for streamlining administrative services, getting rid of duplication, cutting back on thousands of mandates and relocating some staff from expensive hubs like New York and Geneva.

The new proposed UN budget reflects an effort to preserve itself by shrinking. The aim is to reduce the overall UN budget for 2026 by some $500 million, which translates into a budget cut of about 15% and a 19% staff reduction, according to two senior UN officials who briefed reporters on background last week. The peacekeeping budget will see an 11.2% cut and a 13% reduction in positions, they added.

Guterres, however, in letters to member states and UN personnel, warned that the cuts won’t solve the immediate liquidity problem. Instead, he said, they are intended to better place the organisation as it deals with multiple challenges.

On Friday, at an event recognising the UN’s 80th anniversary, Guterres defended the organisation’s legacy and its future, saying, “Let us celebrate not only what has been achieved — but what still lies ahead.”

(Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH)