Global Dispatches -- World News That Matters – Détails, épisodes et analyse

U Thant was a Burmese diplomat and the third Secretary-General of the United Nations. He assumed the role following the death of Dag Hammarskjöld in a plane crash in the Congo in 1961, and soon became one of the most consequential players in international affairs for over a decade.

Thant's contributions to some of the key global challenges of the era were widely celebrated at the time but have since been overlooked—until now. A brilliant new biography, Peacemaker: U Thant and the Forgotten Quest for a Just World, places the former Secretary-General at the heart of several crucial moments of the 1960s, including the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Vietnam War, post-colonial struggles in the Congo, and much more.

The book is written by Thant Myint-U, a historian who has worked at the United Nations—and who also happens to be U Thant's grandson. In our conversation, Thant describes how his grandfather went from being a schoolteacher in rural Burma to, just 15 years later, playing a key role in mediating the Cuban Missile Crisis as UN Secretary-General. We also discuss Thant's efforts to end the Vietnam War before it escalated, and his work confronting a fascist regime in a breakaway region of the Congo. More broadly, we explore the lessons that the current UN system and its Secretary-General can draw from U Thant's remarkable tenure.

Thant Myint-U is the author of Peacemaker: U Thant and the Forgotten Quest for a Just World.

My interview guest today, Axel Marschik, is a veteran Austrian diplomat who has thought extensively about how the General Assembly can play a more robust role in peace and security when the Security Council fails to do so. In a paper that was widely discussed around the UN, Ambassador Marschik proposed that the General Assembly craft pre-authorized sanctions that would be automatically triggered if the Security Council is "unable or unwilling to act to confront some of the most serious violations of international law, including aggression and mass atrocity crimes."

Under his proposal, the General Assembly would design a suite of sanctions in the abstract that would become very real—and automatically imposed on the offending party—through a General Assembly vote should the Security Council fail to take meaningful action.

In our conversation, Ambassador Marschik fleshes out this idea, including what sorts of sanctions he has in mind and how to translate this concept into a General Assembly resolution creating such a mechanism. Ambassador Marschik currently serves as Austria's Ambassador to Germany and previously served as Austria's Permanent Representative to the UN from 2020 to 2025.

This episode of Global Dispatches is produced in partnership with Lex International Fund, a philanthropic initiative dedicated to strengthening international law to solve global challenges. It's part of our ongoing series highlighting the real-world impact of treaties on state behavior, called "When Treaties Work."

UNGA is over. But its legacy lives on. We recorded this episode as news broke of a potential ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, and so we look back at UNGA80 to trace the ways in which the world's largest diplomatic gathering may have provided some key momentum for a breakthrough on Gaza. Mark and Anjali also go deep on a new Gang Suppression Force that the Security Council just authorized for Haiti. But can this international intervention in Haiti succeed when so many before it have failed? Finally, Mark and Anjali make their Nobel Peace Prize picks. Spoiler alert — it ain't Donald Trump.

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Over the past few weeks, the situation in Haiti has gone from bad to worse. On November 10, the interim prime minister of Haiti, Gary Conille, was dismissed by the council that had appointed him in May. Since then, violence has surged throughout Port au Prince and in surrounding locals. A Kenyan-lead police mission has been powerless to stop this escalating security and humanitarian crisis.

In our conversation, Renata Segura of the International Crisis Group explains the shifting contours of this violence and what steps can be taken to enhance security in Haiti. She also delves into the ongoing debates about transforming the Kenyan-lead mission into a formal UN peacekeeping mission, discussing the potential advantages and disadvantages of such a move.

Stephen Morrison is the Senior Vice President and Director of the Global Health Policy Center at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. He's had a long and fascinating career working on development, human rights and health issues around the world. His PhD work focused on the political economy of countries that bordered apartheid South Africa and spend much of the 1980s and 1990s working on African issues in Congress and for the clinton administration. We discuss the origins of the Eritrean-Ethiopian conflict, and his experiences working in the Horn of Africa during a pretty turbulent time. Later, he started USAID's Office of Transition Initiatives and served in Bosnia during the height of the civil war, where he had a few very close calls... Enjoy!

 

The UN Charter turns 70 years old on June 26. This is the founding treaty that created the United Nations and in this episode you will learn the fascinating and legitimately entertaining history of that document and of the 1945 San Francisco Conference that produced it.

Ban Ki Moon and a number of international dignitaries are visiting San Francisco this week to commemorate the occasion, so I caught up with the writer Stephen Schlesinger, author of Act of Creation: The Founding of the United Nations who tells some great stories about the ideas, inspirations and personalities that created the document we now know as the United Nations Charter.

This conversation is in part a historiography of the UN Charter and a history of the San Francisco Conference. You’ll learn the odd reason why San Francisco was picked to host the conference; hear the curious etymology of the term “The United Nations”; and learn some of the big drama that unfolded as delegates tried to put the final touches on the charter. At one point, you’ll even picture Winston Churchill in the buff (it’s an important part of the story. Trust me!)

UN nerds, history aficionados and international affairs enthusiasts will love this episode.

Paula Dobriansky served as Undersecretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs for pretty much the entire George W Bush administration. Prior to that she served in the Bush 41, Reagan and Carter administrations in various foriegn policy capacities. And prior to that she was a Sovietologist studying at Harvard.  She's now back at Harvard, and reflects on her time in government. We kick off with a discussion about the situation in Ukraine and then have a longer discussion about some fun highlights of her long career. 

 

 

 

Earlier this month, the African Union held a summit in South Africa. Among the attendees was Omar al Bashir, the president of Sudan. This was somewhat surprising because Bashir is wanted on charges of war crimes and genocide by the International Criminal Court. And South Africa, as a member of the ICC, is treaty bound to arrest fugitives like Bashir. 

But South African authorities did not arrest him. So a local human rights group pressed their case in a South African court, which issued an injunction ordering Bashir to stay put pending the resolution of the case.    That's when things got weird. With the complicity of the South African government Bashir was allowed to escape the country. He's now back in Sudan.    And on the line with me to discuss what exactly happened and what the consequences might be for the ICC and its relationship with African governments is Mark Kersten. He's the creator of the excellent Justice in Conflict blog and a researcher focusing on the ICC. 

It was a year ago this week that the Iraqi city of Mosul--the second largest city in country--fell to ISIS. The loss of Mosul sparked a re-examination of US policy toward Iraq and ISIS. And just this week, the White House announced that it was sending over 400 military advisers to an Iraqi base that is on the front lines of the fight. On the line with me to discuss the evolution of US strategy to counter ISIS in Iraq is Dr. Steven Metz. He does a very good job articulating that the White House is betting on a strategy of containment--and that this is probably their best option even though they wont publicly admit as such. Metz describes what this strategy looks like; and identifies the big drawbacksof this strategy 

Metz is a columnist for World Politics Review, which is sponsoring this episode. The good people at World Politics Review are offering Global Dispatches Podcast listeners a two week free trial and then a 50% discount on an annual subscription. To redeem this offer go to about.worldpoliticsreview.com/dispatches.  

The Chagos Archipelago is a group of islands situated in the middle of the Indian Ocean. You may have heard of the largest of these Islands, Diego Garcia, because it is home to a strategically important US military base. However, the story of how this base came to being is rather sordid. And the plight of the thousands of inhabitents who were expelled from their homeland to make room for this base is utterly tragic.    Today's episode is a little different than what you may be used to from a typical monday episode of Global Dispatches Podcast. I have two guests today--each bringing a different perspective to one vastly overlooked affront to human rights that has been ongoing for the last 50 years.    I first speak with David Vine an associate professor at American University and author of a book about the Chagossian exile called Island of Shame. We discuss the history of Diego Garcia, why the US military considers the base is so strategically important, and what's become of the Chagossian population since their expulsion.   Next I speak with Olivier Bancoult, who at the age of 4 was banished from his homeland. Like many Chagossians, he now lives in Mauritius. He tells me his life story and we have an absolutely fascinating and somewhat tragic conversation about how a people who have been banished from their homeland adapt and find ways to preserve their cultural heritage.