The United Nations in an Extraordinary Week.. 3 Crises Testing the Global System

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New York returns this week to the forefront of global diplomacy, with the arrival of about 130 heads of state and government at the United Nations headquarters to participate in the 81st session of the General Assembly.

However, this time the scene is not limited to leaders' speeches and traditional handshake photos; behind the platform of the international organization, open wars are accumulating, cross-border regional crises are emerging, and financial pressures threaten the ability of the United Nations to perform its roles, alongside the rise of artificial intelligence as a new challenge that exceeds the capacity of any single country to contain.

The General Assembly meetings will begin on September 22 and continue until the 26th, before concluding on September 28, under the slogan 'Restoring Trust, Managing Transformation: A United Nations that Delivers Results for All.'

This year's meetings come at a moment that tests the international organization's ability to transition from crisis management to influencing crises, at a time when the space for consensus among major powers is shrinking.

This year's session will witness the return of U.S. President Donald Trump to the UN platform, while Chinese President Xi Jinping will be absent from New York, as the term of Secretary-General Antonio Guterres approaches its end in December 2026.

The Middle East is at the forefront of the international scene in New York, amid the ongoing confrontation between the United States, Israel, and Iran, and the repercussions that extend beyond the battlefields to the security of navigation, energy, and global trade.

Tensions are no longer confined to direct confrontation lines, as their effects have spread to vital maritime corridors, while fears of potential Houthi interference in navigation in the Red Sea and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait have added another factor of pressure on shipping and energy markets.

The United Nations is facing a crisis where military calculations intersect with international economic interests, at a time when the task of containing escalation appears more complicated with the expansion of regional repercussions.

In Europe, the Russian-Ukrainian war remains one of the most significant tests facing the international system, as the conflict enters its fifth year and its security and economic repercussions continue beyond the borders of the two countries.

The impact of the war is not limited to the battlefield, as its repercussions have reflected on energy, food, and global trade markets, while the issue of Black Sea security and the continued flow of grain, fertilizers, and energy exports remains a topic of wide international interest.

The U.S. grants the Iranian delegation visas to attend United Nations meetings while rejecting the Palestinian delegation pic.twitter.com/ibGZfa6AdH

The United Nations faces clear political constraints in this matter, as the Security Council remains restricted due to the Russian veto, which limits its ability to take binding actions to end the war.

In contrast, diplomatic efforts continue to find pathways that could lead to de-escalation and create conditions for a political settlement.

The Ukrainian war simultaneously reveals the widening gap between the magnitude of the challenges facing the international system and its ability to produce consensus among major powers on how to address them, a challenge that directly reflects on the role of the United Nations and the effectiveness of its institutions.

However, the United Nations agenda does not stop at wars. Artificial intelligence is emerging as one of the most prominent issues reflecting the nature of new challenges facing the international system, as technology has shifted from an economic and technical issue to a matter related to security, the labor market, the economy, and the future of global risk management.

The difficulty of this issue lies in the rapid development of artificial intelligence capabilities compared to the pace of establishing regulatory frameworks for its use, which raises an international discussion on how to achieve a balance between benefiting from technology and mitigating the risks that may arise from its widespread use. The Secretary-General of the United Nations places this issue among the priorities of the organization, calling on countries and companies leading the development of artificial intelligence to adopt common controls that prevent the technological competition from sliding into a race that is difficult to control its repercussions.

These calls come as part of the organization's efforts to build an international framework for the governance of artificial intelligence, after it established an advisory body in 2023 that included government officials and experts from the technology sector and academia, in an attempt to develop an international approach that treats technology as an issue that transcends national borders.