The annual general debate of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) starts on Tuesday morning in New York amid dire circumstances.
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debate → start → circumstances
Besides traffic gridlock and overpriced hotel rates, cavalcades of motorcades and successive dignitaries delivering calibrated speeches, this session will hear Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’s last speech on the state of the UN.
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session → deliver → UN
Guterres headed the UN for 10 years, and during that time, he repeatedly failed to defend it when it came under attack.
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it → head → attack
He passes on his post at the top of a world organisation on the verge of financial collapse and more marginalised than ever before.
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He → pass → collapse
Paradoxically, Guterres has the United States, the host government of the UN, and its mercurial president, Donald Trump, to thank for this dismal state of affairs.
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Guterres → have → affairs
Earlier this year, the Trump administration withdrew from dozens of UN agencies and organs and, in an extraordinary move, ceased all payments of its dues to the regular and peacekeeping budgets of the UN.
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administration → withdraw → UN
But these drastic policy decisions did not spring out of nowhere.
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decisions → spring → ?
Trump’s unhappiness with the UN is multifaceted, and his decision to stop fulfilling Washington’s legally binding financial obligation may well be the logical culmination of decades-long US policy.
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decision → stop → policy
In the mid-1980s, the Reagan administration accused the UN of being a third-world, anti-US forum.
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administration → accuse → UN
To compel the organisation to better serve its interests and under the guise of the ubiquitous need for reform, which all secretaries-general fell for, the US started to withhold a share of its assessed contribution, which accounted for a quarter of the regular budget and a third of the peacekeeping budget back then.
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which → compel → budget
By 1987, the US relaxed its payment withholding policy, but the precedent was set.
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precedent → relax → policy
Washington continued to use the threat of withholding payment to maintain its grip on an organisation it viewed and continues to view as a vehicle serving its national interests rather than a multilateral agent serving the whole of humanity.
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it → continue → humanity
Ever since the Reagan years, the US has kept the UN on a short financial leash, and to this day, has been deliberately accruing arrears.
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US → keep → arrears
It currently owes an estimated $4.2bn – that is equivalent to 120 percent of the regular UN budget for 2026.
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that → owe → 2026
Trump has readily embraced this policy of financial blackmail.
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Trump → embrace → blackmail
His administration has slow-walked mandatory payments, although earlier this month it paid $827m towards its outstanding dues so it could preserve its voting rights in the UNGA.
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it → walk → UNGA
The president’s ambivalent view of the UN may be rooted in a lesser-known detail.
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view → root → detail
In 2001, Trump, then a real estate developer, lobbied then Secretary-General Kofi Annan to be awarded the billion-dollar renovation project of the UN headquarters, but he did not get his way.
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he → lobby → way
That was probably not forgotten.
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That → forget → ?
As Israel faced growing backlash at the UN for its genocide in Gaza, pressure from the Israeli lobby in Washington mounted.
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pressure → face → Washington
The Iron Dome diplomatic cover the US provided to Israel in the UN Security Council (UNSC) was no longer sufficient.
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US → provide → Council
By 2025, two years into the genocidal campaign, Guterres’s tepid and overdue criticisms of Israeli policies, critical UNGA resolutions and scathing reports by special rapporteurs of the Human Rights Council – including Francesca Albanese, whom Washington placed under sanctions in violation of its host country obligations – became too much for Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the US Congress.
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Washington → include → State
In the 1980s, Washington deemed the UN a third-world anti-US forum; today, it is deemed anti-Israel and anti-Semitic.
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it → deem → 1980s
The US’s blind and unconditional support for Israel has brought it growing isolation at the UN, as has its decision to launch a war of aggression against Iran.
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decision → bring → Iran
Against the backdrop of these developments, the selection of the next secretary-general is dominating the behind-the-scenes agenda.
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selection → dominate → agenda
Guterres’s lacklustre tenure at the helm of an organisation on the verge of financial bankruptcy and political demise will soon be forgotten.
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tenure → forget → bankruptcy
But what should be remembered is that his appeasement policy vis-a-vis Washington since the first Trump administration has evidently failed.
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policy → remember → administration
The new secretary-general will inherit the modus vivendi under which all secretaries-general since Javier Perez de Cuellar have had to operate — chronic cash flow problems due to US arrears.
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secretaries → inherit → arrears
That should motivate the new UN leadership to consider an overhaul of how the UN budget is put together and how member states’ contributions are allocated.
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contributions → motivate → overhaul
Leaving the power of the purse in Washington’s hands is a self-inflicted perpetual wound that could prove lethal for the organisation.
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that → leave → organisation
For too long, Washington has seen the UN either as a vector of its national interests or in adversarial terms.
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Washington → see → terms
It has even used its position as a host to exclude world leaders it has viewed as hostile or undesirable, such as PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat and today Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
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it → use → Arafat
Evidently, those are decisions only the UNGA can take.
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UNGA → take → ?
But a secretary-general with foresight and political backbone ought to provide views and leadership on those seminal questions to save the organisation from further marginalisation and possible demise.
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general → provide → marginalisation
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.
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views → express → stance
The Aporia
