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View all search resultsIn search of neutral ground for a fractured UN
Keeping the UN in New York now risks turning its headquarters into a relic of past American aspirations, but where some voices remain privileged, others silenced and most go unheard.
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President Prabowo Subianto (on podium) delivers his views at the High-Level International Conference (HLIC) on a peaceful settlement of the Palestinian issue and the implementation of the two-state solution on Monday at the United Nations headquarters in New York. President Prabowo reaffirmed Indonesia’s support for the New York Declaration, which recognizes the two-state solution as the only path toward lasting peace between Palestine and Israel. (Antara/Kuntum Khaira Riswan)
E
very time the United Nations General Assembly convenes in September in New York City, the world is meant to gather in one place to reaffirm the spirit of multilateralism.
But the atmosphere this year could not be further removed from that vision.
United States President Donald Trump returned to the podium with a speech that was openly hostile to the UN system, while Washington’s refusal to issue visas for the Palestinian delegation underscored how the Gaza war has been politicized in ways that threatens the credibility of the UN as a forum for all.
It is time to ask the previously unthinkable: Should the UN remain headquartered in New York?
When the UN Charter was signed in San Francisco in 1945 and the headquarters was established in New York a few years later, the US was the undisputed leader of the free world.
Hosting the UN was symbolic of America’s commitment to a rules-based order, for which it was willing to bear the logistical weight of hosting global diplomacy.
But that era has long passed.
