The U.N. General Assembly is launching into its yearly meeting of world leaders, a week of diplomacy, dealmaking, speechmaking — and lingo.
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Assembly → launch → diplomacy
Here is some of the key vocabulary, decoded.
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some → decode → vocabulary
For starters ...
UNGA: Shorthand (often pronounced “UN’-gah”) for the U.N. General Assembly’s “High-level Week,” when presidents, prime ministers, monarchs and other top leaders of all 193 U.N. member countries are invited to speak to the world and each other.
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presidents → pronounce → world
New Yorkers sometimes just groan “General Assembly” to describe what many experience as a week of epic traffic, but the assembly isn’t just this meeting.
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assembly → groan → traffic
It’s a body that discusses many global issues and votes on resolutions throughout the year.
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that → ’ → year
The centerpiece of the week, it gives each country’s leader (or a designee) the microphone for a state-of-the-world speech.
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it → give → speech
This year’s theme is “restoring trust, managing transformation” and ensuring the 81-year-old United Nations “delivers for all.”
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Nations → restore → all
But speakers often opine on the planet’s biggest issues and hot spots, spotlight domestic accomplishments and needs, air grievances and try to exude statesmanship.
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speakers → opine → statesmanship
While the “debate” is more a series of speeches than an interactive discussion, rebuttals are allowed at the end of each long day, and some embittered neighbor nations routinely go multiple rounds.
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nations → allow → rounds
Many UNGA veterans say the gathering’s real value lies in these tête-à-têtes and other personal, off-camera encounters among decision-makers.
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value → say → makers
The 15-member council can enact binding (though sometimes ignored) resolutions, impose sanctions and deploy peacekeeping troops.
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council → enact → troops
While this week is the General Assembly’s show, the council generally also holds a high-wattage meeting or two.
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council → hold → meeting
Under a structure set up in 1945, they are China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States.
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they → set → 1945
The General Assembly elects them for two-year terms in seats allocated by region.
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Assembly → elect → region
One major complaint is the lack of permanent members from Africa and the Latin America-Caribbean region, though some other nations also have angled for years for a permanent presence.
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nations → angle → presence
G77: Stands for the “Group of 77 and China,” a developing-countries interest group that formed within the U.N. in 1964.
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that → stand → 1964
Despite its name, it actually now has 134 members.
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it → have → members
Under the 2015 Paris climate accord, countries agreed to work to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) over preindustrial times.
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countries → agree → times
The goal has long seemed elusive, and the U.N. acknowledged this month that the planet will surpass that threshold in the next few years.
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planet → seem → years
Initial here
SDGs: The U.N.‘s “ sustainable development goals,” which range from combating climate change to eliminating hunger and poverty to achieving gender equality.
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which → range → equality
The U.N.‘s member countries unanimously adopted the goals in 2015 as a 15-year action plan, but the pace is seriously lagging.
SIDS:
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pace → adopt → plan
At the U.N., this stands for some 39 “small island developing states.”
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this → stand → states
UNGA is an important platform for them to elevate concerns such as climate change and the existential threat they face from projections of rising seas and intensifying storms, often a painfully timely subject at a meeting that falls in the thick of the Atlantic hurricane season.
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that → elevate → season
BRICS: A developing-economies coalition that initially included Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa and has grown to 11 countries.
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that → develop → countries
There are many international groups centered around regional, economic, defense or other ties, but BRICS nations boast about half the world’s population and a lot of its resources and economic activity.
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nations → be → resources
The group has been a venue for China and Russia to project influence and work to counter the West.
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China → project → West
It also is struggling with internal divisions.
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It → struggle → divisions
LDCs: Very poor nations that are known at the U.N. as “ least-developed countries.”
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that → know → countries
Forty-four nations currently meet the criteria, which include a gross national income of $1,088 or less per person per year.
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which → meet → year
IFIs: International financial institutions, including the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, which were established at a 1944 U.N. conference in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire.
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which → include → Woods
Critics see the Bretton Woods duo as sclerotic entities that have badly failed poor and developing countries.
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that → see → countries
The institutions have defended their work while saying they are trying to evolve.
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they → defend → work
Global or near-global partnership that is united and collectively develops enduring rules and shared norms.
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that → unite → rules
The idea undergirds the U.N. itself, though many warn it’s under threat.
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it → undergird → threat
MULTISTAKEHOLDER: An approach to big projects and problem-solving that incorporates not only governments but businesses, NGOs and possibly others.
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that → incorporate → governments
Fans see this concept as key to the future of world cooperation.
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Fans → see → cooperation
But some progressive groups view it as a sell-out to big corporations and other powers that be.
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that → view → corporations
The framework was set down in the 1993 Oslo Accords and embraced by the U.N., but progress toward implementing it stalled long before the recent Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and the expansion of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.
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progress → set → Bank
Most of the international community considers the settlements illegal.
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settlements → consider → community
SOUTH-SOUTH COOPERATION: Collaboration among countries, organizations and people in what is known as the Global South.
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what → know → South
…and 1 more, not listed.
The Aporia
