US-UN Relations

New Tensions Sparking Between Trump and UN Rights Leader, Michelle Bachelet

Michelle Bachelet, the UN high commissioner for human rights, in Geneva, December 2018. She has released a long-awaited database of companies that are helping Israel to develop Jewish settlements in Palestine-occupied territory. US Secretary of State Pompeo reiterated his “outrage” last week over the report. VIOLAINE MARTIN/UN PHOTO

UN Chief Condemns Male Privilege as Many Nations Defy Such Bashing

UN Secretary-General António Guterres received an honorary degree from the New School university in New York City on Feb. 17. He spoke at length on “women and power,” blaming patriarchy for the injustices inflicted on women and girls. MARK GARTEN/UN PHOTO 
With International Women’s Day, March 8, on the horizon, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres blasted the intractable power of patriarchy, the cause of overwhelming gender injustice and an abuse of historical proportions, in his view.

US Ambassador Kelly Craft Resumes Campaign Donations with a Big Gift to Trump

US Ambassador Kelly Craft voting in the UN Security Council on a women, peace and security resolution, Oct. 29, 2019. She and her husband, the coal billionaire Joseph Craft, have donated money recently to a political action committee dedicated to re-electing Trump. 
Kelly Craft has taken a big step toward helping to ensure her political future, lavishing a campaign contribution of $360,600 on the re-election of her boss, President Donald Trump.

Palestine v. Israel, and the US Democratic Race: Our Double-Episode Podcast

Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority, holds a map as he addresses the Security Council session focusing on the new Trump proposal for the Mideast, Feb. 11, 2020. Abbas described the proposed land configurations by the United States and Israel as resembling “Swiss cheese.” ESKINDER DEBEBE/UN PHOTO
President Trump has made good on his campaign promises to redefine America’s relationship with the rest of the world — for better or for worse — and the United Nations has in many ways been the epicenter of his “American First” policy abroad.

A New US National Security Council Pick May Mean More Trouble for the UN

Hugh Dugan, an ex-diplomat at the US mission to the UN, is a new Trump appointee in the National Security Council. 
Hugh Dugan, a retired United States Foreign Service officer and former US delegate to the United Nations, has been appointed to the US National Security Council as special assistant for international organization affairs, an integral post for government relations with the UN.

Trump’s Dictator Buddies Across the World Are Not Friends of Women

The Women’s Day march in Istanbul, 2017. The leaders of Brazil, Egypt, India, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, all friends of Trump, have been steadily eroding the rights of women. In Turkey, for example, a bill has been introduced to grant amnesty to men convicted of statutory rape if they marry their victims. OZGE SEBZECI/CREATIVE COMMONS

A Most Influential Actor: The US Ambassador to the UN

Susan Rice, US envoy to the UN from 2009 to 2013, with some of her fellow ambassadors, clockwise from left: Peter Wittig of Germany;  Mark Lyall Grant of Britain; Li Baodong of China; Vitaly Churkin of Russia; and Gérard Araud of France, June 9, 2010. A study by a German scholar of US ambassadors to the UN reveals four styles, he writes: unilateralist, moderate unilateralist, moderate multilateralist and multilateralist. EVAN SCHNEIDER/UN PHOTO