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  • 8 May 2026
    • Global Issues
    • United Nations

    Indigenous peacebuilders have a different answer to Carney’s rupture

    Erin Hurley
    As the liberal order fractures, Indigenous peacebuilders are pressing forward – they never trusted it to begin with.
  • 5 May 2026
    • United Nations

    The UN is not broken – it was built this way

    Abhinandan Kumar
    The world body is neither a global policeman nor an impartial arbiter – and no amount of reform will make it so.
  • 22 Apr 2026
    • Australia
    • International law
    • United Nations

    How Australia shaped the ambitious High Seas Treaty

    Michael Bliss
    The story behind 20 years of quiet Australian diplomacy to rewrite rules for 70% of the world’s oceans.
  • 9 Apr 2026
    • China
    • United Nations
    • Iran

    Iran crisis puts China’s UN diplomacy to the test

    Courtney J Fung , Andrea Ghiselli
    China’s UN veto on a Strait of Hormuz resolution was a calculation driven by domestic pressure and pragmatism.
  • 24 Mar 2026
    • Aid & Development
    • United Nations

    Drivers for the humanitarian reset

    Alistair D.B. Cook
    Proximity, legitimacy and capacity are the features of the new world for global aid.
  • 20 Mar 2026
    • Nuclear Non-Proliferation, Arms Control and Disarmament
    • Nuclear Weapons
    • International law
    • United Nations

    The nuclear ban treaty isn’t winning over the states that matter

    Christopher J. Watterson
    Advocates need to answer six hard questions if they want to advance the goal of eliminating nuclear weapons.
  • 12 Mar 2026
    • Aid & Development
    • Australia
    • Climate change
    • United Nations
    • Fiji
    • Tuvalu

    COP31 still offers Australia and the Pacific a chance to reset global climate ambition

    Melanie Pill , Georgia Hammersley , Alexandre Dayant
    Three steps could turn the hosting compromise with Türkiye into real gains for the region and the world.
  • 12 Mar 2026
    • United Nations
    • Pacific Islands

    If middle powers are rising, where does that leave the Pacific?

    Connor Graham
    The UN gave small Pacific states a formal voice. The erosion of multilateralism may cost them far more than a philosophical loss.
  • 11 Mar 2026
    • Sex and Gender
    • United Nations

    At the UN’s Commission on the Status of Women, the empty chairs are the story

    Asha Clementi
    The UN’s flagship gender equality event is excluding the very people it exists to serve.
  • 18 Feb 2026
    • Defence & Security
    • United Nations
    • Africa

    The UN budget crisis is a security crisis

    Piers Pigou , Isel van Zyl
    The funding shock arrives as conflicts grow more complex, not less.
  • 4 Feb 2026
    • Trade
    • Global Issues
    • International law
    • United Nations
    • Canada

    Mark Carney is wrong about the rules-based order

    Sandy Hollway
    Declaring the system a fiction ignores real achievements and only makes it easier for big powers to demand their way.
  • 22 Jan 2026
    • China
    • Maritime Security
    • Russia
    • Climate change
    • International law
    • United Nations
    • United States

    The truth about Arctic "strategic competition"

    Saxon Wright-Casanova
    The region is far less important, and less contested, than commonly claimed.
  • 20 Jan 2026
    • Human rights
    • Multilateral Institutions
    • United Nations
    • Iran

    The international community is failing the Iranian people

    Shadi Rouhshahbaz
    As the world dithers, Iranians suffer.
  • 3 Dec 2025
    • Bangladesh
    • India
    • Diplomacy
    • Human rights
    • United Nations

    High stakes in India’s refusal to send former Bangladesh PM to trial

    Shanthie Mariet D’Souza
    A carefully worded extradition treaty means New Delhi can hedge its bets, but it should be prepared for blowback.
  • 12 Nov 2025
    • United Nations

    A case for UN reform that cannot wait

    Febrian Alphyanto Ruddyard
    The power, purpose, and the price of relevance for the global organisation at 80.
  • 10 Nov 2025
    • Climate change
    • United Nations
    • Pacific Islands
    • Fiji
    • Papua New Guinea
    • Vanuatu

    Pacific Islands: Without literacy, climate resilience is nigh on impossible

    Serena Sasingian
    Strategic competition has left gaping holes in regional health and education goals. The parameters need to be reset.
  • 5 Nov 2025
    • Australia
    • Diplomacy
    • Multilateral Institutions
    • United Nations

    The art of Australia’s straight-talking diplomacy

    Lachlan Strahan
    A foreign service known for being informal and egalitarian has worked a treat for Canberra’s envoys. But does it reward boldness?
  • 30 Oct 2025
    • Australia
    • United Nations

    Confronting the danger of a “zombie” United Nations

    Penny Wong
    Middle powers can act now to reform the UN – before financial crisis turns it into an empty shell.
  • 16 Oct 2025
    • Aid & Development
    • Australia
    • International law
    • United Nations

    The legal reform needed to match Australia’s global humanitarian promises

    Tom Barber , Naomi Brooks
    Humanitarian workers face danger abroad – and legal uncertainty at home under Australia’s current laws.
  • 16 Oct 2025
    • Aid & Development
    • Sustainability
    • United Nations

    Who will salvage the SDGs as Western donors retreat?

    Sunaina Kumar
    Developing nations can forge new coalitions to champion the 2030 Agenda and fill the leadership void.
  • 13 Oct 2025
    • Australia
    • Defence & Security
    • Intelligence and security
    • Asylum seekers and refugees
    • Human rights
    • International law
    • United Nations

    Australia’s role in bringing international criminals to justice

    Jennifer Keene-McCann , Aruni Jayakody
    Stepping up efforts to investigate and prosecute perpetrators on Australian soil will build credibility at home and abroad.
  • 3 Oct 2025
    • Indonesia
    • Climate change
    • United Nations

    Indonesia’s green industrial policy ahead of COP30

    Bhima Yudhistira Adhinegara , Muhammad Zulfikar Rakhmat
    Jakarta is playing a balancing act between business wins and climate objectives. Can it work?
  • 26 Sep 2025
    • Global Economy
    • G20
    • Trade
    • WTO
    • Global Issues
    • Climate change
    • Multilateral Institutions
    • Space exploration
    • United Nations

    Why we need international institutions…

    Jenny Gordon
    …and how to rebuild them in an era of great power competition.
  • 19 Sep 2025
    • United Nations

    The UN at 80: Broke, blocked and still indispensable

    Izabela Pereira Watts
    Despite structural flaws and funding shortfalls, multilateral cooperation offers the only path through turmoil.
  • 16 Sep 2025
    • Australia
    • United Nations

    A bingo card guide for Anthony Albanese’s speech to the United Nations

    Daniel Flitton
    Australia’s recent national statements reveal the familiar script the PM will likely follow in his first address to the global body.
  • 15 Sep 2025
    • United Nations
    • United States

    The big picture benefits of a UN headquarters in New York

    Stéphanie Fillion
    If the United States continues to diminish its role in the global institution, others are all too ready to fill the void.
  • 3 Sep 2025
    • United Nations

    The UN’s impossible job: Who would want to be the next Secretary-General?

    Stéphanie Fillion
    Some candidates may launch their campaign at the upcoming General Assembly, even as political paralysis and budget cuts make the job even harder.
  • 15 Aug 2025
    • Afghanistan
    • Sex and Gender
    • United Nations

    Afghanistan: Ten ways the Taliban is vanishing women from public life

    UN Women Australia
    Yet Afghan women show they have not given up – and demand that the world does not either.
  • 5 Aug 2025
    • Defence & Security
    • Sex and Gender
    • United Nations

    The case for women peacekeepers from those who serve

    Katrina Lee-Koo , Eleanor Gordon
    New field research reveals how female peacekeepers improve mission effectiveness despite persistent barriers.
  • 30 Jul 2025
    • Afghanistan
    • Human rights
    • Sex and Gender
    • United Nations

    Courage is essential for Afghanistan’s women of Radio Begum

    Annmaree O’Keeffe
    With girls banned from high schools and universities, a free educational broadcast service continues to make waves.
  • 22 Jul 2025
    • China
    • Russia
    • Ukraine
    • United Nations

    Chinese peacekeepers in Ukraine would be a win-win for Beijing

    Justyna Szczudlik
    In a skillful and delicate game, China is looking to balance Russia and the West in its support of Kyiv.
  • 17 Jul 2025
    • Debt
    • United Nations

    UN development summit shows who’s really fanning the flames

    Melissa Conley Tyler
    Seville’s sweltering UN conference exposed deep rifts between those pushing private finance and advocates for debt justice.
  • 27 Jun 2025
    • Debt
    • United Nations

    The Seville compromise: A move forward for development financing while Washington steps back

    Grace Stanhope
    What happens when the world’s biggest donor walks away?
  • 21 May 2025
    • Coronavirus
    • Multilateral Institutions
    • United Nations

    The World Health Assembly adopts a historic Pandemic Agreement

    Alexandra Finch
    While the text could have been more ambitious, it nonetheless provides a firm foundation for action on pandemics.
  • 28 Mar 2025
    • India
    • Mauritius
    • United Kingdom
    • International law
    • United Nations
    • United States

    India’s support for Chagos sovereignty speaks volumes

    Sanchari Ghosh
    New Delhi’s backing of Mauritius on Chagos is a calculated geopolitical move within a shifting Indo-Pacific order.
  • 18 Mar 2025
    • North Korea
    • United Nations

    Monitoring without mandate: Can sanctions succeed outside a UN framework?

    Nika Pasko
    The new “multilateral team” watching North Korea faces legitimacy challenges.
  • 17 Feb 2025
    • Climate change
    • United Nations
    • Pacific Islands
    • United States

    What the Pacific has said about Trump’s Paris pull-out

    Isabelle Zhu-Maguire
    Listen to the region and the message is clear – wrong way, go back.
  • 14 Feb 2025
    • Australia in the World
    • Multilateral Institutions
    • United Nations
    • United States

    Australia can no longer assume multilateralism will work in its favour

    Mercedes Page
    With US withdrawals and China's growing influence, Australia must rethink its approach to the UN.
  • 12 Feb 2025
    • Global Issues
    • Multilateral Institutions
    • United Nations
    • United States

    What a US withdrawal from WHO will mean for global health

    Alexandra Finch
    And it’s a raw deal for the United States, too.
  • 6 Feb 2025
    • Climate change
    • United Nations
    • Pacific Islands
    • China and the Pacific
    • Fiji
    • Papua New Guinea
    • Samoa
    • Solomon Islands

    The global contest for the Pacific

    Michael Wesley
    Geopolitical fears of growing Chinese influence in Oceania are not the only interest Australia has in the region.
  • 28 Jan 2025
    • China
    • Russia
    • International law
    • Multilateral Institutions
    • United Nations
    • United States

    Abandoning the rules-based order is no solution

    Malcolm Jorgensen
    Competing narratives about the international order are being weaponised in an age of renewed territorial ambitions.
  • 23 Jan 2025
    • Al Qaeda
    • Islamic State
    • Human rights
    • International law
    • United Nations
    • United States

    What does the Trump presidency mean for Women, Peace and Security?

    Susan Hutchinson
    International peace and security requires due consideration of the world’s women. This is no radical social theory.
  • 21 Jan 2025
    • Australia
    • United Nations

    The UN Peacebuilding Commission: What’s in it for Australia?

    Martina Zapf
    Regional clout for one thing.
  • 16 Jan 2025
    • Human rights
    • United Nations
    • United States

    Melting ice caps reveals the scourge of colonialism

    'Alopi Latukefu
    Donald Trump shows no regard for the rights and autonomy of the Indigenous Inuit population who make up the majority of Greenland’s residents.
  • 19 Dec 2024
    • Aid & Development
    • Development Assistance
    • Climate change
    • Multilateral Institutions
    • United Nations
    • United States

    What a Trump second term holds for global development

    Alexandre Dayant
    Judging by track records, there's a bumpy road ahead for aid, health and climate funding.
  • 16 Dec 2024
    • Indonesia
    • Indonesia and the Death Penalty
    • Malaysia
    • Singapore
    • Southeast Asia
    • Human rights
    • International law
    • United Nations

    Southeast Asia’s death penalty laws: The ultimate political game

    Kirsten Han
    The region’s diverse policies on executions are about more than the war on crime.
  • 6 Dec 2024
    • Nuclear Non-Proliferation, Arms Control and Disarmament
    • Nuclear Weapons
    • United Nations
    • Iran
    • Iraq

    Hans Blix: The arms control Einstein who turned 96 this year

    Kourosh Ziabari
    A consensus-builder who believes nuclear weapons are never in safe hands, no matter who holds them.
  • 3 Dec 2024
    • Climate change
    • Environment
    • United Nations

    COP29: The climate finance fudge

    Stephen Grenville
    Acrimonious debate in Baku amounted to a lost opportunity, squabbling over funds when action is needed everywhere for the energy transition.
  • 27 Nov 2024
    • Climate change
    • Technology
    • United Nations
    • Pacific Islands
    • Fiji
    • Nauru
    • Papua New Guinea
    • Samoa
    • Solomon Islands
    • Tonga
    • Tuvalu

    The Pacific disinformation playbook

    Meg Tapia
    A surge in connectivity has exacerbated the region’s challenges, undermining trust in science and government.
  • 21 Nov 2024
    • Diplomacy
    • Climate change
    • Environment
    • United Nations

    Zooming in on climate change: The experience of a virtual COP29 attendee

    Isabelle Zhu-Maguire
    Flying thousands of delegates across the globe has its own environmental cost – so how effective are global negotiations conducted online?
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