Established on Oct. 24, 1945, the United Nations is an intergovernmental organization designed to facilitate cooperation among nations. Headquartered in New York City, it comprises 193 member states and operates through six principal organs, including the General Assembly and the Security Council.
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This podcast episode of Diplomatic Immunity from Georgetown’s Institute for the Study of Diplomacy explores the evolution of UN peacekeeping over its 70-year history. The podcast is joined by Dr. Lise Howard to examine the origins, challenges, and shifting role of peacekeepers—those “blue helmets” deployed where few others will go—in a broader conversation about multilateralism and global conflict response.
In 2020, as the United Nations marked its 75th anniversary, the Council on Foreign Relations' Council of Councils published a collection of expert essays proposing reforms to enhance the UN's relevance. This collection of essays is a thought-provoking look at the UN’s future.
Asia is the epicenter of global urban population, hosting most of the world's ten largest cities by population. The top three are Jakarta, Indonesia, Dhaka, Bangladesh, and Tokyo, Japan.
With support from more than 175 nations, a treaty led by the United Nations is being negotiated to establish enforceable global rules for plastic production and pollution by 2025. Negotiations come as the total amount of plastic in the ocean has increased by 50% from 2017 to 2022.
The United Nations recognized numerous Frank Lloyd Wright buildings as World Heritage Sites. The US as a whole hosts just 26. Each Wright property demonstrates its unique style, from the Prairie style Frederick C. Robie House to the organic architecture masterpiece Fallingwater.
Antimicrobial resistance has become an increasingly glaring problem for both health and agriculture. In 2024, the United Nations announced a new suite of clear actions and targets that—taken together with existing efforts—can help address superbugs in a meaningful way and on a global scale. This page from the UN lays out these efforts, with links to additional information on the many aspects of the initiative.
The 2022 World Drug Report provides a global overview of the supply and demand of opiates, cocaine, cannabis, amphetamine-type stimulants and new psychoactive substances (NPS). Consisting of five separate booklets, the report is compiled annually by...
This video highlights the history, content, and ongoing significance of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In 1948, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the UDHR. The document serves as a common human rights standard for everyone, everywhere. This video unpacks the purpose, the preamble, and all 30 articles of the UDHR. Watch this six-minute video by UN Human Rights for a summary of the UDHR.
This video outlines what basic human rights are, who gets to pick them, who enforces them, and how. The basic idea of human rights states that each of us is entitled to the same basic rights and freedoms, no matter who we are or where we are born....
Asia’s “Golden Triangle” has long been at the center of a notorious illegal drug trade. The region – where the jungle borders of Thailand, Laos, and Myanmar meet – is largely operated, controlled, and protected by warlord-like military leaders and organized crime syndicates. They have expanded drug production in the Golden Triangle, reviving the opium trade and flooding regional markets with synthetic drugs.
Weave together the many narratives of world history with our highly curated and expanding selection of diverse, fascinating resources designed to showcase the breadth and richness of Earth's story, from the earliest traces of human civilization to the dramatic developments of contemporary cultures.