To Save Us From Hell

On Tuesday and Wednesday this week, the four candidates for UN Secretary-General made their case at the UN General Assembly. Across twelve hours spanning two days, they took questions from UN member states and civil society groups eager to learn more about their priorities, proclivities, and leadership styles should they become the next UN Secretary-General on January 1, 2027.

It was a marathon — and my To Save Us From Hell co-host Anjali Dayal and I watched it all! In today’s episode, we tell you what we learned.

To kick things off, we explain how the process for selecting a UN Secretary-General works — and how these hearings fit into it. We then break down what we heard from each of the candidates: Michelle Bachelet, Rafael Grossi, Rebeca Grynspan, and Macky Sall, bringing you the key highlights and takeaways. Consider this your curtain-raiser for a year of public campaigning and backroom dealmaking that will result in the selection of the next UN Secretary-General in the coming months.

This episode is free for all and can also be found later today on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you listen.

The selection of the next Secretary General is a major story in international diplomacy and I plan on covering it to the finish line — whenever that may be (but hopefully before January 1!)

The war in the Middle East has claimed its first UN casualties: three Indonesian peacekeepers in Lebanon were killed in under 24 hours. With Israel intent on occupying the same part of southern Lebanon that UN peacekeepers are meant to patrol, can the peacekeeping mission even continue? Meanwhile, in New York, a Secretary-General-led diplomatic effort t…

One of the fundamental precepts of the United Nations Charter is that waging war against another UN member state is simply not permitted. It’s illegal. There are, however, some narrow exceptions — and here the United States is playing a game of legal legerdemain. In the first segment of our show, we break down the formal legal justification the Trump administration invoked at the United Nations to defend its bombing campaign against Iran. Does it hold up? And more importantly, how do other countries view this retroactive justification for America and Israel’s war of choice? We also discuss a potential UN diplomatic intervention in the Strait of Hormuz that is gaining some traction, modeled on one of the UN’s successes during the Russia-Ukraine war.

After the fold, and for paying subscribers, we examine why the United States is standing virtually alone at the Commission on the Status of Women, casting lone “no” votes on a host of measures intended to promote gender equality. Finally, we discuss the newest entrant in the race to replace António Guterres as secretary-general, Virginia Gamba, and how her nomination may shake up the race.

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We cover a lot of ground in this week’s episode of To Save Us From Hell! There are two new entrants to the race to succeed António Guterres as the next UN Secretary-General; Cindy McCain announced she is stepping down as head of the World Food Programme, meaning there will soon be a vacancy at the top of one of the largest UN agencies—one typically led …

It was an odd juxtaposition: Trump’s inaugural Board of Peace gathered in Washington, D.C. as the U.S. appeared to be readying for war with Iran. In this week’s To Save Us From Hell episode, Mark and Anjali discuss why this Board of Peace can’t really compete with the Security Council, and what its advent says about international relations today. They t…

For the first time in history, multiple countries have jointly nominated a candidate for UN Secretary General. Earlier this week, Brazil, Chile, and Mexico endorsed Michelle Bachelet—a former president of Chile, former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and a survivor of brutal repression under the Pinochet regime. The move is unprecedented—and pote…

Can Donald Trump’s new Board of Peace really compete with the Security Council? Will we even be discussing it a week or two from now, or will Trump and other world leaders simply move on? And what’s with the Board’s logo, which looks almost like a parody of the United Nations emblem?

Mark and Anjali break down the newest—and perhaps strangest—entrant int…

The Security Council convened an emergency meeting on Monday in response to American military operations in Venezuela that captured Nicolás Maduro and his wife— forcing dozens of countries to publicly respond to one of the most audacious U.S. actions in recent memory.

Anjali and Mark break down what unfolded in the chamber: which countries issued the st…

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Your very own To Save Us From Hell co-host Anjali Dayal briefed the United Nations Security Council on Monday! She was paired with former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon for a special meeting of the Council dedicated to examining the role of the Secretary-General and the process for selecting Antonio Guterres’s successor. Anjali gives co-host Mark Leon…

On December 4, the entire United Nations Security Council made an unprecedented trip to Syria. It is hard to overstate what a significant turning point this represents — both for the Security Council and the United Nations as a whole. For thirteen long years, the civil war in Syria was the largest and most brutal conflict in the world, and one that stymied the United Nations by exposing massive geopolitical rifts between key global powers. We may now look to Gaza or Ukraine as examples of paralysis at the Security Council — but it was Syria that first broke it.

Now, all fifteen members are in Damascus, in an important show of unity. Mark and Anjali break down why this trip is so significant and what role the UN can play in supporting Syria’s democratic transition.

After the paywall: Mark and Anjali discuss shocking new revelations about the UN’s budget, and what the official “pre-launch” of the selection process for the next Secretary-General tells us about how the UN’s next leader will be chosen.

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