The second Trump administration has taken a deliberately disruptive approach to the United Nations system, denouncing and defunding numerous UN agencies and agreements. The U.S. has also upended its established diplomatic relationships in New York, working with Russia on Ukraine and Syria in the UN Security Council, while demonstrating contempt for the concerns of its NATO allies. Some of Trump’s high-profile gambits, such as his repeated proposals to annex Canada and Greenland, clearly contradict the core principles of the UN Charter.
The President’s barrage of announcements and budget cuts has left UN officials and foreign diplomats disconcerted and uncertain about what strategy to adopt towards Washington. Some UN members think there is still a chance to persuade Trump to work with the UN, if they can show that it offers him value for money. Others fear that it is too late to do so.
Richard Gowan, who has watched the UN at close quarters for 20 years, will do his best to predict what comes next.
About the speaker
Richard Gowan was previously a Consulting Analyst with ICG in 2016 and 2017. He has worked with the European Council on Foreign Relations, New York University Center on International Cooperation and the Foreign Policy Centre (London). He has taught at the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University and Stanford in New York. He has also worked as a consultant for the organisations including UN Department of Political Affairs, the UN Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on International Migration, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Rasmussen Global, the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs and Global Affairs Canada. From 2013 to 2019, he wrote a weekly column (“Diplomatic Fallout”) for World Politics Review.
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