UN Starts World's First Arms Trade Treaty: Will It Work?

Evelyn Leopold, 10.31.2009

Veteran reporter at the United Nations

The aim is to set standards for the global $55 billion export business in guns, tanks, attack helicopters, jet fighters, missiles and other conventional weapons.

Cuban Vote at UN: "Here We Go Again"

Evelyn Leopold, 10.28.2009

Veteran reporter at the United Nations

For the 18th consecutive year, the General Assembly condemned the US embargo against Cuba. But this was the first vote since President Obama took office, and everyone listened for hints of change.

Iran Talks: Shadows of Iraq, Legitimacy of Regime

Evelyn Leopold, 10.16.2009

Veteran reporter at the United Nations

Two elephants are and were in the room during negotiations on Iran's nuclear ambitions: the rigged elections that brought President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to power and the shadow of Iraq.

Fatally Flawed UN Goldstone Report Could Come Back to Bite America For Fighting Terrorists

Rabbi Abraham Cooper, 10.14.2009

Associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center and its Museum of Tolerance

Goldstone's report, in effect, equates Israel with Nazis and other tyrants of history by accusing the Jewish State of deliberately targeting civilians.

Leave Punishing Iran to Iranians

Melody Moezzi, 10.13.2009

Author, Activist & Attorney

It's clear that Iran's strongest adversary today remains within its own borders. The current Iranian regime has far more to fear from its own people than it does from any foreign powers.

Win or Come Home In Afghanistan

Daniel Burrell, 10.03.2009

President Obama must confront the stark reality of the conflict in Afghanistan by acknowledging what his predecessor couldn't - that there are real limitations to US power and resources.

Weekly Foreign Affairs Roundup

Christopher Herbert and Victoria Kataoka Rebuffet, 10.02.2009

Editors of Simple Intelligence

This Past Two Week's Top Stories in Foreign Affairs

The Tone of Our Atonement: A Meditation for Yom Kippur

Carol Smaldino, 09.25.2009

Psychotherapist

I want to dare to pose the notion of making Yom Kippur a time for softer and longer reflections, about how to make things better, truer, safer for our insides and freer from inner terrors.

Weekly Mulch: Climate Week Gets Lukewarm Response

The Media Consortium, 09.25.2009

Network of Leading Progressive Independent Journalism Organizations

By Raquel Brown, Media Consortium Blogger Seventy days before the international climate summit in Copenhagen, hundreds of government officials and bu...

A Changing Tide of Opinion for Girls and Women

Sarah Brown, 09.25.2009

Wife of British Prime Minister Gordon Brown

Where the lives of girls and women are at risk or compromised, understanding that we must and can save them is the means by which we will save and care for everyone.

Mental Patient Breaks Into U.N., Gives 90-Minute Speech

Andy Borowitz, 09.24.2009

BorowitzReport.com

A day after the stunning security breach, U.N. officials were still attempting to sort out how it was allowed to happen.

Message to World at the G-20 Summit: Don't Depend on a Strong U.S. Recovery to Bail You Out

Rob Shapiro, 09.24.2009

Chair of NDN's Globalization Initiative and Former Under Secretary of Commerce for Economic Affairs.

Prospects for a strong U.S. recovery are slim, especially one strong enough to help the rest of the world. And that will be the biggest, unspoken disappointment at this week's G-20 meetings.

Queen Noor: "We Are Reaching A Nuclear Tipping Point"

Hanna Ingber Win, 09.23.2009

Hanna Ingber Win is the World Editor of the Huffington Post.

As President Obama prepares to push the UN Security Council to adopt a resolution on nuclear non-proliferation on Thursday, Queen Noor of Jordan and a...

Update: Gaddafi Hijacks UN General Assembly Podium

Evelyn Leopold, 09.24.2009

Veteran reporter at the United Nations

Only a few blocks from Broadway, Colonel Gaddafi rambled on for more than an hour and a half, tearing out pages of the U.N. Charter and shaking his hands in anger before the UN General Assembly.

Obama's UN Speech and American Leadership on Nuclear Disarmament

James Lamond, 09.23.2009

Policy Researcher, National Security Network

The proliferation of nuclear weapons is one of the most dangerous and frightening of modern challenges. Yet it also one the challenge that through American global leadership and international cooperation can be addressed.

Obama at the United Nations

Sasha Abramsky, 09.23.2009

Author of the upcoming book "Inside Obama's Brain"

Barack Obama has always been at his best when the setting enables him to explain his vision for transformative change through the use of broad historical themes and holistic analyses.

Ahmadinejad Kicks Diversion Efforts into High Gear

Melody Moezzi, 09.23.2009

Author, Activist & Attorney

In the lead-up to his speech at the UN General Assembly in New York on Wednesday, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is up to his old tricks. And sadly, the global community seems to be falling for them.

Why Canada Shouldn't Walk Out On Ahmadinejad

Emma Ruby-Sachs, 09.23.2009

Lawyer

As a Jew and a Canadian, it's hard not to react strongly and violently to the actions of Ahmadinejad. But I also believe in the United Nations.

It Is Five Minutes To Environmental Midnight. We Need To Act - Urgently

Johann Hari, 09.22.2009

Columnist, London Independent

Barack Obama is a highly intelligent man who has appointed some of the best scientists in the world to explain to him what needs to happen now. But he is trapped in a political system soaked in petrol.

Live Blogging from CGI

Jack Hidary, 09.22.2009

Entrepreneur

Obama about to speak -- Matt Damon, Ashton Kutcher in the house. A well-coiffed Bill Clinton opened the 5th Clinton Global Initiative.

A Clear Path Forward For the UN on Nuclear Disarmament

Nabil Fahmy, 09.23.2009

Former Egyptian ambassador to US; Dean of the School of Public Affairs, American University in Cairo

When Obama takes the stage at the UN, he should seize the moment to turn the world's attention to the nuclear proliferation crisis -- not just by highlighting the issue's urgency, but by providing a clear path forward.