But this year’s encapsulated a world in flux and crisis, an international law and organisation structure that is falling apart, and a humanitarian order machine running hot.
asserted
that → encapsulate → flux
What unfolded was less a gathering for resolution and resolve than a display of showboating, frustration and fractiousness.
asserted
unfolded → unfold → showboating
It was a snapshot for the history books of four huge destabilising conflicts for which there seems to be no means of, or interest in, resolution – Ukraine, Iran, Palestine and Sudan.
asserted
It → seem → which
Volodymyr Zelenskyy delivered an account of five years of Russian aggression: the staggering loss of life – hundreds of thousands killed on both sides – the porousness of the sanctions on Russia, the “madness” of it all.
asserted
Zelenskyy → deliver → it
Donald Trump once again threatened to “annihilate” Iran if it did not make a deal, a promise that has now been made so many times its restating only reveals its hollowness.
asserted
restating → threaten → hollowness
Iran’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian, responded in his own speech by saying that Iran has been the victim of US terrorism and aggression, and would defend itself with the “utmost strength”.
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Iran → respond → strength
The sole US delegation representative in the room walked out.
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representative → walk → room
In the middle of this unbridled, unseemly pugnaciousness, pleas to restate facts were trampled over by power-lust.
asserted
pleas → restate → lust
The Israeli government’s sense of impunity “has reached terrifying levels”, said Jordan’s King Abdullah II.
asserted
II → reach → levels
“It no longer feels compelled to ask, ‘Can we get away with this?’
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we → compel → this
It already knows the answer.”
asserted
It → know → answer
“If international law can be ignored for decades,” he added, “then what exactly is that law worth?”
asserted
law → ignore → decades
As if to answer that question, Benjamin Netanyahu became the only ICC indicted leader to address the UN general assembly, with a characteristically belligerent speech.
asserted
Netanyahu → answer → speech
And on international law meaning nothing, the assembly was subjected to the farce of the United Arab Emirates, the key player in Sudan’s war, piously preaching about how Sudanese people deserve peace and civilian rule, while the UAE’s leaders are accused of arming and funding the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), itself accused of genocide and ethnic cleansing.
asserted
leaders → mean → genocide
A close ally of the US and the UK, the UAE has managed to extend Sudan’s war into a calamitous conflict, without even a breath of censure, or even acknowledgment from its friends.
asserted
UAE → manage → friends
A $500m investment in the Trump family’s cryptocurrency scheme, and multibillion-pound partnerships with the UK, have seemingly captured the two states.
asserted
investment → capture → states
Indeed, the silence it has bought is so compliantly observed that the US’s senior adviser on African and Arab affairs (Tiffany Trump’s father-in-law) acknowledged foreign interests but refused to name any of the countries.
asserted
adviser → buy → countries
Even procedurally, the ground was tilted by those who have the power and shamelessness to do so.
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who → tilt → power
The Trump administration invoked its sovereign ability to decide who could attend and who could not, wielding a sort of weaponisation of the visa system that rendered the UN not a neutral body with its own rules and protocols, but a tool to be leveraged for the interests of the US and its allies because it sits in US territory.
uncertain
it → invoke → territory
Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas (not ICC-indicted) and 80 other Palestinian officials were denied visas to attend for the second time under Trump’s watch.
asserted
Abbas → indict → watch
The head of the Sudanese government and Sudanese armed forces, the antagonists to the UAE-backed RSF, was denied a visa, seemingly an indication of successful Emirati manoeuvrings in Washington.
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head → back → Washington
The dynamics were an expression of how foreign policy and conflict are managed today, with constant gaming of the system to amplify one side over the other and produce outcomes friendly to regional and global powers.
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policy → manage → powers
He posted a hectic flurry of social media clips talking about what could be done in the middle of the fire, a sort of diplomatic “this is fine” meme.
uncertain
this → post → meme
And God bless him.
asserted
God → bless → him
In one, he is on a walk with Alexander De Croo, administrator of the UN development programme, who talks about the problem being “crises piling up on one another”.
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problem → talk → one
“The answer,” Fletcher says, “to a lot of what we do is actually diplomacy.
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we → say → what
Getting those chokepoints open, Bab al-Mandab, the Black Sea, the strait of Hormuz, because otherwise we both have a much bigger development caseload and humanitarian caseload.
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we → get → caseload
He represents an emerging new model of international and humanitarian worker – navigating funding cuts, a lack of interest in peace and politicised drawdown of international aid to at least maintain some traffic of funds.
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He → represent → funds
To make sure some support gets to the millions labouring under war, the climate crisis, disease, poverty, hunger and predation
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support → make → war
The wars will carry on, and now the strategy is to negotiate with powers to un-choke and unblock what can be opened to get supplies and relief in, from winter aid in Gaza to containing the Ebola outbreak.
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what → carry → outbreak
But where we are now isn’t just a matter of earnest diplomats and cynical, irresponsible warring powers.
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are → war → diplomats
A far more complex problem is upon us: the rapidly changing nature of military conflict itself.
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problem → change → conflict
Wars are becoming vastly less containable through the spread, sophistication and low cost of AI and drones.
asserted
Wars → become → AI
They are now conducted remotely, veering between high-intensity and low-grade assaults that render their beginnings and ends less decisive.
asserted
beginnings → conduct → assaults
They are more likely to just suspend normal life with dispensable drones, the sort that have held the Gulf hostage to Iran’s response to US attacks, Sudan’s war without a clear frontline, and the “ceasefire” in Gaza essentially just a lower-grade assault.
asserted
that → suspend → Gaza
The UN general assembly meeting of 2026 was a study in so many things – the degradation of international law, the rickety system it has bequeathed, the acceleration of the demise of international community, and the importance of resolve to somehow attend to the victims.
asserted
it → bequeath → victims
But we are also entering an era in which belligerents themselves are coming to grips with asymmetrical warfare and an elusive status quo.
asserted
belligerents → enter → warfare
There is much talk of “what comes next”: an equilibrium of middle powers in compact, a rupture with the US and within Nato, a nihilistic free for all?
asserted
what → be → all
We as humans tend to think in clear-cut scenarios.
asserted
We → tend → scenarios
What is more likely is what was demonstrated last week in New York – a messy prolonged state of constant stress under careless leaders giddy with what they realise they can get away with, no exit plan, and the rest of the system given no option but to work with and around them to somehow alleviate the consequences of their actions.
asserted
they → demonstrate → actions
The Aporia
