A world in turmoil walks into the UN, looking for a way out

World leaders arriving in New York for the annual U.N. General Assembly are confronting a world dramatically different from the one they left behind a year ago.

Two escalating wars, a global economy in flux and a shifting balance of power have deepened uncertainty across the international system. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres recently described the moment as an “era of deep uncertainty”, as reported by AP, adding that the power is shifting, the world is changing and international institutions must change with it.

The turmoil is visible across continents. The conflict in the Middle East has spiralled since the U.S. and Israel launched a joint attack against Tehran, drawing in nearly every country in the region and resulting in the effective closure of a critical waterway.


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The more than four-year war between Russia and Ukraine is also showing no sign of ending, with both sides intensifying military attacks even as diplomatic efforts have repeatedly failed to break the deadlock.

From wars to climate, crises keep piling up

The past nine months have brought a string of shocks beyond the battlefields. A U.S. military operation removed Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro from power, while a deadly crackdown followed mass pro-government demonstrations in Iran.

An Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda in May raised fresh questions about the world's preparedness for another pandemic. Deadly earthquakes in Venezuela and Colombia, along with massive flash floods in Nepal and Tibet, added to concerns over the impact of human-caused global warming.

Against this backdrop, AP spoke to current and former ministers, ambassadors and officials from around the world ahead of the General Assembly. Speaking on condition of anonymity, they offered a stark assessment of the international system and its ability to respond to the mounting crises.

One European diplomat and another official told AP that the world is no better off than it was a year ago and has instead become more unstable. They pointed to attacks on international law, the breakdown or absence of mediation efforts and the failure to reach global consensus on climate, peace and security.

Former U.S. Ambassador Robert Wood, who served at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations under both Republican and Democratic administrations, told AP that this is a “critical time” to determine whether some of the disputes can still be resolved diplomatically.

“The U.N. is really at an inflection point,” Wood said, according to the report. “It was bad last year. It's not much better this year.”

Diplomacy searches for an opening

The General Assembly will bring the world's attention to speeches by U.S. President Donald Trump, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian. But much of the diplomatic action could take place away from the main chamber, as officials seek meetings with allies and adversaries.

Among the issues they hope to tackle are maritime security in the Strait of Hormuz and the challenge posed by runaway artificial intelligence. The goal is to find openings where formal diplomacy has struggled to make progress, the report added.

For one Gulf official, the desired outcome is less ambitious but perhaps more fundamental: restoring some predictability to global affairs.

“In international relations, everything is changing: the friendships are changing, and alliances are changing,” Slovenia's Foreign Minister Tone Kajzer told AP. What remains constant, he said, are countries' interests and the need to align them “so that we live in peace and not in a permanent conflict.”

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That tension — between a rapidly changing world and institutions struggling to keep pace — will hang over this year's gathering. The question facing diplomats is not simply how to manage the latest crisis, but whether they can still find enough common ground to manage any of them.