Special to WorldTribune.com

By John J. Metzler, September 3, 2025

When the new UN General Assembly session opens on Sept. 9th, world leaders and diplomats will be commemorating the 80th anniversary of the global organization established in the wake of WWII to “maintain international peace and security” for future generations.

At headquarters here on the East River in New York, delegates and staff will however be doing far less celebrating than was previously planned.

Instead, the membership will be confronted by a spate of long running crises ranging from the Ukraine war, to the unending Palestinian clashes and now fighting in Gaza, to at least a dozen perilous humanitarian crises in Africa, South Asia and the Middle East. Tragically all these situations converge at a time when the United Nations itself is financially running on empty due to a continuing budget crisis from its members late dues payments as well as the organization’s overstretched mandates.

A perfect storm plagues the global body which has grown from the ashes of WWII expanding from an original 51 member states to 193 today. And its newest member may be Palestine!

Hot Wars

Following Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the central European country was immersed in battle and chaos on a scale not seen in Europe since the Second World War. Though the Russians had been systematically dismembering Ukraine’s territory since seizing the strategic Crimean peninsula in 2014, the wider conflict exploded in February 2022.

Amid continuing fighting, in a few months Ukraine faces the fourth winter of the full-scale war. Currently there are over 5 million Ukrainian refugees with millions more internally displaced by Moscow’s attacks.

Just a year ago as the Ukraine war raged, there were few calls for a formal ceasefire or peace talks. Now the United States and the Europeans have vigorously pressed for an end to the conflict through summit diplomacy. Nonetheless Russian President Vladimir Putin has failed to take serious actions to stop the carnage.

UN officials have stressed, “We renew the Secretary-General’s appeal for a full, immediate and unconditional ceasefire. A ceasefire that results in a just, comprehensive, and sustainable peace in Ukraine, one that fully upholds Ukraine’s sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity.”

Palestine/Endless Gaza Chaos

The long running Palestinian issue has plagued the UN since its creation. But when Hamas terrorists attacked Israeli civilians on October 7, 2023, the intractable conflict took on a new darker genocidal dimension. Thus, this was no longer the traditional Arab/Israeli war such as in 1967 or 1973, but an attack not to confront the Israeli Army but rather unarmed Jewish civilians in vulnerable settlements near the Israel/Gaza border.

Since October 7, just under two years, the UN Security Council and relief Agencies have spent endless sessions trying to square this circle of Hate promoted by Hamas to little avail. Now the conflict has assumed a deadly momentum of its own as vast and tragic refugee numbers shift within Gaza’s churning Armageddon as Israeli troops root out terrorist cells. A durable cease-fire, release of Israeli hostages, and humanitarian aid distribution remains crucial.

Palestine Recognition?

Western democracies seem to be tripping over themselves in a mad rush to offer diplomatic recognition to the Palestinian State. Ireland, France, then Britain, Canada and Australia added their names, and reputation, to the list of shame and the diplomatic isolation of Israel. One could ask whether the UN is making itself more inclusive or more irrelevant?

Simmering Crises

Iran’s longstanding support to terrorist proxies has been dealt a deadly blow with continuing Israeli attacks on Hamas, Hizbullah in Lebanon, and the Houthis in Yemen. But what of Iran’s long-term ambition to possess a working nuclear weapons program? The Islamic Republic has faced serious setbacks after the American bombing of key nuclear research instillations in June. Yet the Teheran regime still relentlessly pursues the nuclear weapons genie. Recently, France, Germany and the UK stated they support reimposing pre-2015 international snapback-sanctions on Iran given the regime’s waffling on nuclear transparency.

Humanitarian Crises

Sudan, Yemen, Haiti, Somalia, Congo, Myanmar face massive, long-running humanitarian crises. The world community and the UN relief apparatus faces Crisis Overload. Refugee numbers have swelled too; Venezuela has the largest numbers with 6.3 million, followed by long-suffering Syria at 6 million and Afghanistan at 5.8 million according to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, UNHCR.

Now for the first time in a generation, the world faces serious great power rivalry. The UN Security Council remains deadlocked for a decade with no end in sight. Have these geopolitical challenges eclipsed the United Nations?

John J. Metzler is a United Nations correspondent covering diplomatic and defense issues. He is the author of Divided Dynamism the Diplomacy of Separated Nations: Germany, Korea, China (2014). [See pre-2011 Archives]

  financial shortfalls, UN at 80 shadowed by same old (and new) chaos