To Save Us From Hell

"A rare bright spot amid the disastrous conflict in the Gaza Strip" is how UNICEF described the successful first phase of a massive polio vaccination campaign in Gaza. Polio was confirmed three weeks ago, and over the last several days, UNICEF, the WHO, and UNRWA have taken advantage of humanitarian pauses in the fighting to administer hundreds of thousands of vaccine doses. In our first segment, we discuss how this vaccination campaign is being carried out and why it has been successful so far, while other humanitarian interventions have faltered. What makes this polio vaccination campaign so different?

Next, we examine a new piece in Foreign Affairs by UN Peacekeeping Chief Jean-Pierre Lacroix, which laments the lack of peace-making efforts in the world today. Lastly, Anjali interviews Kayla Redstone from the Universal Postal Union, a little-known but hugely important UN agency that enables people to send mail and parcels virtually anywhere in the world. It’s mundane multilateralism—and it works!

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On August 8th, a committee representing most UN Member States approved a draft text of a new United Nations Convention Against Cybercrime. Despite the support from the majority of UN member states, civil society and private sector groups are arguing against its adoption. In fact, the proposed Convention on Cybercrime has the dubious distinction of being opposed by industry titans like CISCO, Amazon, and Microsoft, as well as major watchdogs such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Human Rights Watch.

So, what is the problem with this convention? And how did an idea that originated with Russia, and is backed by China, North Korea, Myanmar, Nicaragua, Syria, Cambodia, Venezuela, and Belarus, end up gaining the support of most other UN member states, including the United States and Europe?Today’s episode of To Save Us From Hell takes a deep dive into the UN Cybercrime Convention and is available exclusively to our community of paying supporters. Go here for a discounted subscription: https://www.globaldispatches.org/SaveUs

The Summit of the Future is a two day confab on September 22 and 23 that kicks off the opening of the United Nations General Assembly and High Level Week. It is being billed as “once-in-a-generation” opportunity to revitalize the UN and multilateralism in a time of great global turmoil and restore trust in international cooperation as a means of solving common global challenges. That may sound impractically idealistic, but the Summit itself is the culmination of years of discussions, negotiations and diplomacy around concrete policies and proposals intended to bring about certain reforms to the UN that would make it more responsive to future global challenges.

Our “To Save Us From Hell” podcast episode today is devoted entirely to the Summit of the Future and some of the specific UN reforms on the table. Co-host Anjali Dayal and Mark Leon Goldberg have a long conversation with the Stimson Center’s Richard Ponzio about the significance of the Summit of the Future and what to expect from the Summit’s three big outcome documents.

As certified UN-Nerds, Anjali Dayal and Mark Leon Goldberg's ears always perk up when they see the UN represented in pop culture. In this special episode of To Save Us From Hell, we take a deep dive into how the United Nations is portrayed in popular music, television shows, and film. From Lou Reed to Charlize Theron to Doctor Who —we explore the cultural impact of the United Nations from the 1950s to today.

Our first segment discusses both spurious and verified accusations that some UNRWA staff in Gaza may have been involved October 7th attacks. Two new reports this week shed light on how wild accusations against UNRWA are less than credible. Our second segment looks at how the UN is approaching the war in Sudan, which by the numbers is the worst humanitarian crisis in the world. We discuss a Security Council meeting on Darfur featuring the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court and a second meeting on the humanitarian crisis, including a recent report showing famine conditions are spreading among 500,000 people in a vast IDP camp in Darfur. In our third segment, we discuss the International Seabed Authority, which is an entity created by the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea that seeks to regulate deep sea mining. The International Seabed Authority recently had a hotly contested election for Secretary General that pitted an incumbent favored by industry against a challenger preferred by conservationists and scientists.

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Before we sat down to record this week’s episode, authorities in Iran announced that Hamas’ political leader, Ismael Haniyeh, was killed in Tehran. This news came just hours after Israel claimed responsibility for the targeted assassination of a top Hezbollah commander, who was killed in retaliation for a gruesome missile attack in the Golan Heights. Amidst this flurry, there is a heightened prospect that conflict will escalate further throughout the region.

However, the UN offers a way out of this escalatory spiral, identified no less by the Israeli Foreign Ministry, which on Wednesday released a statement saying, “The only way to prevent an all-out war is the immediate implementation of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701.” In our first segment, we explain what this means and whether an 18-year-old Security Council resolution can really prevent a wider war in the Middle East.

Our second segment uses the occasion of Sierra Leone becoming the President of the Security Council for the month of August to tell the good-news story of one of the most successful UN peacekeeping missions of all time. Our third segment takes a deep dive into the work of ECOSOC, the Economic and Social Council, a UN body that receives very little attention despite its highly consequential work.

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US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield visited Port-au-Prince this week in a show of support for UN-backed efforts to bring a modicum of stability to Haiti. Her visit comes on the heels of the deployment of Kenyan police officers to Haiti and a recent vote in the Security Council to back the UN’s Office in the country. In our second segment, we discuss the kick off of the race for the 80th President of the General Assembly, who will take office next year and profoundly shape the process of selecting the next UN Secretary General. We also discuss the concept of an “Olympic Truce” embraced by the United Nations and the UN-backed effort to establish an Refugee Olympic Team.

It’s been a tumultuous week in American politics: an assassination attempt on Trump, JD Vance nominated as the Republican vice presidential candidate, and the ongoing Republican National Conventions. In this episode of To Save Us From Hell, we take a look at what a second Trump presidency would mean for the United Nations. We discuss Trump’s views and approach to the UN from his first term in office, how COVID-19 completely changed his attitudes towards the UN, and what we can expect from a second Trump presidency. This includes a deep dive into what Project 2025 says about the United Nations, including the potential for the US to withdraw from the UN altogether.

In our second segment, we speak with Malta’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Vanessa Frazier. Malta serves on the Security Council, and Ambassador Frazier was chiefly responsible for the only meaningful Security Council resolution on Gaza, which she crafted in November and which led to the release of over 100 hostages and the only sustained cessation of hostilities to date. We share with you an excerpt of that interview. Our full conversation with Ambassador Frazier is available exclusively to paying supporters.

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If Biden declines to run for re-election, the most likely replacement is Vice President Kamala Harris. In this week’s episode of To Save Us From Hell we take a deep dive into Kamala Harris’ views of the United Nations. We discuss how she’s engaged with the UN since becoming Vice President and why there are some subtle but important distinctions between her approach to the UN and that of President Biden.

We kick off at the Security Council, where an emergency meeting on Ukraine led to a revealing clash between the Russian and Ukrainian ambassadors. The meeting followed Russian airstrikes on a children’s hospital in Kyiv, which Russia denied. Things got particularly heated when the Russian Ambassador, acting in his capacity as President of the Security Council, raised procedural objections against letting Ukraine into the meeting(!).

We also discuss an event around the UN that should attract more media attention than it actually does. The High-Level Political Forum is the third-largest annual gathering at the United Nations and serves as an annual check-up on progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals. The centerpiece of this meeting includes over 40 “Voluntary National Reviews” in which countries report and discuss their own progress towards the SDGs. We discuss what’s happening at this year’s High-Level Political Forum and the merits of peer pressure as an accountability mechanism for the SDGs.

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A new month means a new president of the UN Security Council. On July 1, Russia took the helm of the most powerful body in the United Nations system and announced that Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov would chair two Security Council meetings during Russia’s presidency. The problem is, Lavrov is under a travel ban and asset freeze by the United States for his actions related to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In our first segment, we discuss what happens when leaders under American sanctions come to the United Nations in New York? We also discuss Russia’s plans for its month-long presidency and why the credibility of the Security Council is not really impacted by Russia taking its turn at the helm.

Our second segment examines the diminished role that the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) plays in the UN system today. R2P was enshrined in the UN charter nearly 20 years ago as a way to confront genocide and mass atrocities, but its relevance has decreased ever since it was invoked to justify a Security Council-backed intervention in Libya. We discuss why that is and what’s next for R2P.

Our final segment examines newly passed legislation from a key committee in the United States House of Representatives that would nearly completely defund the United Nations. Republicans were not always so hostile to the UN, so what has changed? And what can we expect from Republicans in the future?

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