This year’s session of the U.N. General Assembly officially centered on the Sustainable Development Goals and challenges such as climate change and AI governance. Yet, during the week of high-level meetings from Sept. 22–30, pressing global conflicts played a key role in both formal speeches and informal discussions. The Israeli–Palestinian crisis and Myanmar’s ongoing civil war drew special attention through dedicated events, while other conflicts featured prominently in speeches and side meetings as well.To better understand the implications, we asked five experts to assess what this year’s U.N. General Assembly means for the wars in Ukraine, Gaza, Myanmar, and Sudan, as well as for Iran’s nuclear program and the related risks of further regional escalation.Paul Poast Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of ChicagoU.S. President Donald Trump’s address was perhaps the most highly anticipated and interpreted event at the 80th U.N. General Assembly. The speech gave Trump a platform for touting his efforts as a peacemaker while criticizing U.N. failures in that regard. Setting aside the accuracy of Trump’s claim that he has “solved” seven wars, he acknowledged that one war — the war in Ukraine — has eluded his efforts: “[O]f the seven wars that I stopped, I thought that would be the easiest because of my relationship with President Putin, which had always been a good one.” Instead, it is his on again/off again relationship with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy that seems to be making a difference. Following their bilateral meeting at the General Assembly, Trump seems to be changing his tune on the war, no longer claiming that Ukrainian defeat is inevitable.Zaha Hassan Senior Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International PeaceIsrael’s war on Gaza and the “Palestine Question” featured prominently in the remarks of just about every country during the opening of the
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This year’s session of the U.N. General Assembly officially centered on the Sustainable Development Goals and challenges such as climate change and AI governance. Yet, during the week of high-level meetings from Sept. 22–30, pressing global conflicts played a key role in both formal speeches and informal discussions. The Israeli–Palestinian crisis and Myanmar’s ongoing civil war drew special attention through dedicated events, while other conflicts featured prominently in speeches and side meetings as well.To better understand the implications, we asked five experts to assess what this year’s U.N. General Assembly means for the wars in Ukraine, Gaza, Myanmar, and Sudan,