These things have often been true in recent years when world leaders orate at one another during their annual meeting at the U.N. General Assembly, which concluded Monday.
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which → orate → Assembly
This year, though, the discourse seemed even more urgent than usual.
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discourse → seem → ?
Across the words of more than 150 speeches, two things emerged as clear: Many leaders deeply want the world body to work.
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body → emerge → speeches
And many have concluded that it isn’t.
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it → conclude → ?
“Where are the United Nations?” Alexandra Hill Tinoco, the foreign minister of El Salvador, asked Monday.
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Tinoco → ask → Salvador
“Do we have an organization that is still relevant?”
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that → have → organization
That was the question that hung over the weeklong gathering as leader after world leader — in different words, with different details — probed at the very heart of the organization that was founded eight decades ago to prevent a conflict like World War II from ever happening again.
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that → hang → II
At the heart of the U.N. ethos sits a word that most regular people never use: “multilateralism.”
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people → sit → that
The optimistic principle — that problems that cross borders, regions and oceans can be solved by cooperation and shared power — is a potent one, advocated by almost everyone (the United States under Donald Trump being a notable exception).
But that flavor of multilateralism was conceived and built in a different era, when globalized challenges like pandemics, climate change and artificial intelligence did not sit quite so front and center.
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challenges → cross → pandemics
Even today, those that hold the true power — the ability to veto anything that comes before the U.N. Security Council without giving a reason — are the same five nations given it at the end of World War II.
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that → hold → II
“Multilateralism is under siege,” said Mulipola Anarosa Ale-Molioʻo, Samoa’s deputy prime minister.
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Molioʻo → say → siege
It’s not surprising, then, that the theme of this year’s leaders’ meeting at the General Assembly was “restoring trust.”
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theme → ’ → trust
From the barrage of remarks about it being broken, it seemed obvious that something needs to give in order to, as Algerian Foreign Minister Ahmed Attaf put it, create “a shared home rather than an organization held hostage to the dominance of power politics.”
“There are problems,” said the foreign minister of Sri Lanka, Vijitha Herath, “which no country can solve alone.”
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country → break → which
There’s a close relationship between multilateralism and trust
One sticking point that the scores of speeches revealed was the scratchiness between two vital notions — multilateralism and sovereignty.
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scores → ’ → notions
Nations from North Korea to the Marshall Islands invoked high principles to say that all must work together while simultaneously underscoring that they will never allow their sovereign rights to be violated.
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rights → invoke → principles
This produces contradictions that remain unsolved.
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that → produce → contradictions
“We have never been so connected, yet we are increasingly unable to trust one another,” said Grand Duke Guillaume, Luxembourg’s head of state.
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Guillaume → connect → state
The tradition of American individualism plays a role here, as embodied by Trump’s consistently aggressive tone toward the U.N.
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tradition → play → U.N.
To many in the United States, multilateralism hints at dark echoes of “one world government” and the notion of giving up power — and thus liberty — to other stakeholders.
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multilateralism → hint → stakeholders
This trait, while often recessive in U.N. meetings, is true of many nations that fear incursion, war and domination.
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that → fear → incursion
In reality, though, multilateralism is the way the world works today — economically and, arguably, politically.
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world → work → reality
From AI to rising temperatures, many nations just aren’t equipped to go it alone.
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nations → rise → it
And while cooperation on AI was a centerpiece this year, so too was the outlook that nations such as China offered — that each country must make its own decisions about the emerging technology.
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country → offer → technology
“States alone cannot make progress,” said Christophe Mirmand, Monaco’s minister of state.
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Mirmand → make → state
The hue and cry for multilateralism, always present when smaller nations meet larger ones, has been growing since the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020-21, when most of the meetings were held remotely.
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most → meet → meetings
It has been amplified further as members — particularly island nations, whose very existence is threatened by warming oceans — increasingly assert that the world is happening at them rather than with them.
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world → amplify → them
If bigger countries with different interests can make all the major decisions on problems and opportunities that transcend map borders, these smaller nations say, then they will be left in the dust.
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they → make → dust
The only answer, they say, is a United Nations that truly equalizes voices and has the fortitude to make that principle stick.
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principle → say → fortitude
“The message to small nations is clear: Be as sovereign as we allow you to be,” said Philip Edward Davis, prime minister of the Bahamas.
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Davis → allow → Bahamas
“A sovereignty that requires permission is not a sovereignty.”
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that → require → permission
Fixing the imbalance of political oomph is difficult
Whenever the United Nations gathers, its origin story is always lurking in the background: World War II.
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story → fix → background
Nowhere is that more evident than when talk of expanding the Security Council and its permanent members comes up.
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talk → expand → Council
The 15-member Security Council, which holds the U.N.‘s only real authority, has five permanent members — the United States, Russia, Britain, China and France — that hold veto power.
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that → hold → power
While other nations rotate in and out, their power is limited; they can neither veto nor prevent vetoes.
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they → rotate → vetoes
Those five nations have held the power since the beginning (in Russia’s case, as the Soviet Union).
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nations → hold → Union
For so many other nations, that’s not OK.
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that → ’ → nations
“The veto is a relic,” said Matthew Wale, prime minister of the Solomon Islands, whose existence is threatened by climate change.
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existence → say → change
Many island nations want permanent representation on the council.
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nations → want → council
José Antonio Kast, Chile’s president, put it more forcefully: “We simply cannot continue to play by the same rules of an order that was established in 1945 in 2026.
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that → put → 2026
The notion of permanent representation for Africa, which currently holds three rotating seats, has long been a goal of African leaders, who speak about it every year.
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who → hold → it
…and 14 more, not listed.
The Aporia
