What Zohran Mamdani Means for the United Nations
Plus: The Biological Weapons Convention is a treaty that works
Municipal elections in New York are actually quite consequential for international relations.
New York isn’t just the cultural and media capital of the United States — it’s also the host city to the United Nations. The office of the Mayor of New York plays a key role in making sure diplomacy at the UN runs smoothly. Since 1962, City Hall has maintained a special bureau dedicated to liaising with the UN. In this new episode of To Save Us From Hell, Fordham University professor Anjali Dayal and I discuss the fascinating history of this office, which is partly rooted in the discrimination African and Asian diplomats once faced from racist landlords in New York.
We also cover a new development in the race to replace António Guterres as UN Secretary-General; how the UN is responding to the unfolding disaster in Sudan; and whether the Security Council will approve a U.S.-drafted resolution to deploy an international security force to Gaza.
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If you like free stuff and multilateral success stories, I just published the latest installment of When Treaties Work, featuring Jaime Yassif, Vice President of Global Biological Policy and Programs at NTI, who explains the history and continuing relevance of the Biological Weapons Convention, which turned 50 years old this year. This episode of the Global Dispatches podcast is freely available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
This is the seventh installment of When Treaties Work, which I’m producing in partnership with Lex International. I’ve received great feedback on this series from listeners who appreciate learning how multilateralism has solved some of our biggest global challenges. These episodes are also great examples of the kind of solutions journalism that feels particularly important these days — our problems may seem vast, but they are not insurmountable.
If you want to nominate a treaty or multilateral agreement that deserves wider attention, please get in touch and pitch me on it. I love hearing from you!
Onwards,
Mark