U.N. Gathers Amid Its 80th Anniversary and a ‘Free Fall’

When world leaders converge on New York City this week for the annual gathering of the United Nations General Assembly, the organization will be observing its 80th anniversary. But the mood is far from celebratory, as wars rage around the world, a budget crisis looms and questions abound about whether the U.N. is even relevant anymore.

Year after year, U.N. officials and world leaders use the annual gathering to put forth lofty ideas and offer elaborate road maps for change. But tangible progress remains stubbornly elusive.

Russia’s war against Ukraine is more than three years old. The Israel-Hamas conflict in Gaza has been raging for nearly two years. And the world is still nowhere near achieving its goals on development or a solution for climate change. Even the United Nations’ global humanitarian aid work — one of the few areas where the organization has continued to excel and lead the world — is now threatened by budget cuts, donor apathy and staff reductions.

“We can actually say we are in an organization that is in sort of a free fall,” said Richard Gowan, the U.N. director for the International Crisis Group, adding that the coming week is not “going to offer us clear answers to all the U.N.’s problems, but it may give us a more acute sense exactly how difficult the situation is.”