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🔔 New on the Global Observatory: UN Peacemaking Needs More Diplomats, Not More DoctrineThe secretary-general’s review of...
08/26/2026

🔔 New on the Global Observatory: UN Peacemaking Needs More Diplomats, Not More Doctrine

The secretary-general’s review of UN peace operations commits the Secretariat to “a systematic offer of its good offices,” and candidates to succeed António Guterres have spoken about reinforcing the UN's peacemaking work. But how can the next secretary-general turn those commitments into practice?

In this article, Daniel Safran-Hon draws on the practices of several past secretaries-general to set out how Guterres’s successor might assemble a peacemaking team with political weight.

👉 Read the full analysis: https://theglobalobservatory.org/2026/08/un-peacemaking-needs-more-diplomats/

🔔 New on the Global Observatory: Five Themes from the Secretary-General’s Review of UN Peace Operations On August 20th, ...
08/26/2026

🔔 New on the Global Observatory: Five Themes from the Secretary-General’s Review of UN Peace Operations

On August 20th, the UN released the long-anticipated review of the secretary-general on the future of all forms of UN peace operations, requested by member states in the Pact for the Future. What does the report tell us about Guterres’s vision for peace operations?

In this article, Jenna Russo argues that the report falls short of the secretary-general’s pledge to provide “a comprehensive proposal” to reset peace operations, but it does capture the current mood of policymakers around key issues.

👉 Read the full analysis: https://theglobalobservatory.org/2026/08/review-of-un-peace-operations/

🔔 New on the Global Observatory: Most Countries Will Not Win the AI Race, but They Still Need a Strategy Artificial inte...
08/25/2026

🔔 New on the Global Observatory: Most Countries Will Not Win the AI Race, but They Still Need a Strategy

Artificial intelligence is often described as a global race. In reality, very few countries are racing: the money, infrastructure, hardware, and frontier models much of the economy rests on are concentrated in two countries and a small number of companies. For governments elsewhere, that is a strange starting point for national AI policy.

In this article, Martin Waehlisch 🌐🕊️ argues that most countries cannot aim for full technological self-sufficiency when it comes to AI.

If “sovereign AI” is not about building the whole AI stack at home, what should governments be aiming for instead?

👉 Read the full analysis: https://theglobalobservatory.org/2026/08/national-ai-strategies/

🔔 New on the Global Observatory: What Happens after UNIFIL?With UNIFIL set to begin withdrawing after its mandate ends o...
08/21/2026

🔔 New on the Global Observatory: What Happens after UNIFIL?

With UNIFIL set to begin withdrawing after its mandate ends on December 31, 2026, Lebanon faces the prospect of a significant political, security, and economic vacuum. Yet, one year after the Security Council decided to close the mission, there is still no agreed plan for what comes next.

In this article, Alexander Costy examines three ways has served as a stabilizing force despite its shortcomings: supporting the management of the 2006 ceasefire, providing Lebanese leaders political space to postpone confronting the question of Hizbullah’s disarmament, and serving as a major employer and socioeconomic driver in southern Lebanon. He then considers four possible paths forward—and the challenges each would face.

👉 Read the full analysis: https://theglobalobservatory.org/2026/08/what-happens-after-unifil/

🔔 New on the Global Observatory: Who Will Govern Gaza? Women Are Missing from the Emerging Transition On July 30th, the ...
08/20/2026

🔔 New on the Global Observatory: Who Will Govern Gaza? Women Are Missing from the Emerging Transition

On July 30th, the US-led Board of Peace announced a potential breakthrough in efforts to implement the roadmap for Gaza's political and security transition. The central dispute remains unresolved: Hamas has accepted the roadmap but will not hand its weapons to the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG) before Israel ends military operations and withdraws, and on August 9th the Israeli prime minister rejected the roadmap outright.

In this article, Carol Daniel Kasbari, Ph.D. examines who will hold authority inside the institutions being prepared to govern Gaza's transition. She sets out five priorities for the NCAG, the Board of Peace, the UN, and donors, including appointing women commissioners beyond the social protection portfolio, placing women throughout the verification, disarmament, and civilian-protection architecture, creating a property and documentation mechanism that recognizes women's claims, and giving women decision-making power over reconstruction finance and contracts.

👉 Read the full analysis: https://theglobalobservatory.org/2026/08/women-missing-from-gaza-transition/

🔔 New on the Global Observatory: Reckoning with 20 Years of UN Counterterrorism For the first time in the history of the...
08/19/2026

🔔 New on the Global Observatory: Reckoning with 20 Years of UN Counterterrorism

For the first time in the history of the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy, consensus has fractured. On July 1st, the General Assembly adopted the Strategy's ninth review resolution by a vote rather than by consensus, with the United States, Israel, and Argentina voting against. The Strategy turns 20 this September, against the backdrop of a global epidemic of counterterrorism-related human rights abuses.

In this article, Franziska Praxl-Tabuchi and Matt Schwartz examine how the UN's counterterrorism agenda has evolved since the adoption of Security Council Resolution 1373 into one of the most far-reaching peace and security frameworks in the international system.

Twenty years after the adoption of the Strategy, the question is no longer whether reform is necessary. Are the United Nations—and the next secretary-general—prepared to confront the consequences of the system they have helped build?

👉 Read the full analysis: https://theglobalobservatory.org/2026/08/20-years-of-un-counterterrorism/

🔔 New on the Global Observatory: Peace Was Missing at the First UN AI Dialogue in Geneva, but the UN Can Still Correct C...
08/19/2026

🔔 New on the Global Observatory: Peace Was Missing at the First UN AI Dialogue in Geneva, but the UN Can Still Correct Course

Why was peace missing from the UN’s first Global Dialogue on AI Governance?

The first Global Dialogue on AI Governance, convened in Geneva in July 2026, is the UN’s flagship multistakeholder forum on artificial intelligence (AI). Together with its companion body, the Independent International Scientific Panel on AI, it forms the institutional core of a new AI governance architecture. But the General Assembly resolution that established both bodies limits them to “the non-military domain.” Because military was excluded, peace appears to have been excluded alongside it, as though the two were inseparable.

In this article, Branka Panic examines where peace went missing in Geneva.

The window between Geneva and the next AI Dialogue in is finite. Will the UN’s newest governance instruments make room for the purpose the organization was founded on?

👉Read the full analysis: https://theglobalobservatory.org/2026/08/peace-missing-at-first-un-ai-dialogue/

🔔New on the Global Observatory: Avoiding Deadlock in the Selection of a New UN Secretary-General What happens if the Sec...
08/13/2026

🔔New on the Global Observatory: Avoiding Deadlock in the Selection of a New UN Secretary-General

What happens if the Security Council cannot agree on the next UN secretary-general?

As the 2026 selection process gets underway, attention has focused on the candidates themselves. But with growing divisions among Security Council members and no clear frontrunner, another possibility deserves attention: prolonged deadlock.

In this article, Lynn Hastings examines what previous moments of institutional deadlock can teach us about the current selection process. Drawing on the appointments of Trygve Lie, Dag Hammarskjöld, and Javier Pérez de Cuéllar, she explores the legal, political, and operational implications of a vacancy in the office of secretary-general and outlines possible contingency options should the Security Council fail to recommend a candidate before the end of António Guterres's term.

As the UN confronts financial pressures, institutional reform, and mounting geopolitical tensions, can member states afford to wait until a deadlock occurs—or should contingency planning begin now?

👉Read the full analysis: https://go.ipinst.org/xjq

🔔 New IPI Issue Brief: Synergies and Challenges in Financing Adaptation, Sustainable Development, and Loss and Damage De...
08/05/2026

🔔 New IPI Issue Brief: Synergies and Challenges in Financing Adaptation, Sustainable Development, and Loss and Damage

Developing countries need an estimated $310 to $365 billion a year for climate adaptation by 2035. The goals agreed at COP29 and COP30 fall far short of that.

This issue brief by Olivia Fielding gives an overview of the history and current state of adaptation finance and examines how it overlaps with development finance and with loss and damage. It looks at why there is still no agreed definition of climate finance, how that fuels double counting, and why—for many small island developing states and least developed countries—the form finance takes matters as much as the amount.

👉 Read the full issue brief: https://www.ipinst.org/2026/08/synergies-and-challenges-in-financing-adaptation-sustainable-development-and-loss-and-damage

Since 2017, the Elsie Initiative for Women in Peace Operations has funded over 80 published pieces of research covering ...
07/31/2026

Since 2017, the Elsie Initiative for Women in Peace Operations has funded over 80 published pieces of research covering topics across the full spectrum of advancing the meaningful participation of uniformed women in peace operations.

This week, IPI hosted a 2-day retreat with researchers who have worked with the Elsie Initiative, practitioners, and uniformed women to reflect on what we’ve learned, identify key findings and common themes, and collaborate on how to translate these into practice to ensure that the evidence can better inform those shaping policy and practice.

Building on those conversations, the week concluded with a closed-door roundtable that brought together military and police advisers in New York to test emerging recommendations, gather feedback, and discuss how these insights can help strengthen more effective and inclusive peace operations.

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