World leaders will gather at a bleak moment during the 79th session of the United Nations General Assembly, due to Israel’s war on Gaza and other wars, and tense geopolitical relations in the world, the International Crisis Group says.
The New York-based group has published a long report on 10 key challenges it expects the United Nations to face during the current session of the UN General Assembly, which covers the period from September 2024 to September 2025.
These challenges, as identified by the group, range from the war in Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan, Myanmar, and Yemen, to the fight against “terrorism,” protecting women around the world, and the UN’s handling of some of its core responsibilities, such as peacebuilding operations and reforming the institution itself, among others.
most troubled
The group said the past few years had been some of the most turbulent in the organization’s recent history, and that the war in Gaza had highlighted how the division of major powers had weakened the United Nations, with many of its members concerned that it was failing to fulfill its core mandate of maintaining global peace and security.
In an overview, the group said the conflict in the Middle East has raised significant concerns, relations between the United States, Russia and China have hampered work across the UN Security Council, and UN officials have acknowledged that morale is low. The UN is still engaged in a wide range of issues, such as peacemaking and humanitarian initiatives in conflict-affected countries, but it needs to find ways to sustain and strengthen these efforts despite the frustrating geopolitical circumstances.
Difficulty of prediction
The report noted that it is difficult to predict the organization’s priorities for the next 12 months, and events in the Middle East are likely to have a strong impact on the Security Council and the General Assembly. But recent years have shown that crises can emerge quickly, resetting the UN agenda without warning.
There is no way to predict which crises will occupy the United Nations over the next year, which will flare up without a fuss, which current wars might fizzle out without a fuss, and no way to know who the next U.S. president will be or what it will mean for the organization’s political and financial power, she added.
She still has a role to play.
The Crisis Group also noted that while growing divisions between key states have hampered the UN’s ability to provide real leadership in conflict resolution, the international body still has an important role to play in crises that are widely ignored, such as Sudan, or that briefly grab headlines and fade without resolution, such as Myanmar.
Despite recent reports of its decline, the UN retains the ability to engage in many crises—high-profile, forgotten, or obscure—from different angles, the group concluded. Although many member states are bitterly disappointed by its failure to quell all-out wars, the organization remains a vital part of efforts to defuse a range of conflicts that are often ignored, achieve greater international understanding, and prepare for tomorrow’s shocks.
