Asha Castleberry

Walking into the United Nations during General Assembly week is a reminder of just how interconnected—and rapidly changing—the world has become. The halls are filled with presidents, diplomats, ambassadors, military leaders, policymakers, and civil society representatives from nearly every corner of the globe, all bringing different perspectives to the same table. Having previously worked at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations, returning to UNGA gave me an opportunity to reflect on how much the international landscape has evolved and where it may be headed next.

One of my most meaningful takeaways was the importance of building deeper partnerships with the Global South. My conversations with leaders and representatives from Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, Asia, the Middle East, and other regions reinforced that these nations are not simply observers of the international system; they are increasingly important partners in shaping its future. The United States must listen, engage, and build relationships based on shared interests and mutual respect.

My biggest takeaway from this year’s UNGA is that the world is adapting to both artificial intelligence and a new global order. Governments and societies are considering how AI will reshape economic development, national security, diplomacy, education, employment, and governance. At the same time, the international community remains committed to advancing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). There is also significant interest in the future of the United Nations itself, including the selection of the next Secretary-General and discussions about reforming and potentially expanding the Security Council.

As a U.S. Army veteran and former U.S. government foreign-policy official, I was reminded that the United Nations still matters as a critical forum where peace and security issues are discussed and diplomacy continues even during periods of profound conflict. During UNGA, peace and diplomatic efforts continued around major crises, including the Iran war, Syria, and the Gaza crisis. These conversations reinforced for me that military power alone cannot resolve complex international conflicts; sustained diplomacy, negotiations, alliances, and multilateral engagement remain essential. UNGA ultimately strengthened my belief that America’s future grand strategy must integrate diplomacy, national security, technology, economic security, sustainable development, and stronger partnerships across the globe.

Maryum Saifee

Last week was my first UNGA as a free dust particle blowing in the wind. As of a few months ago — May 4, to be precise — I am officially (and rather gloriously) institutionally unhoused.

For the last seventeen years, if I was in New York in late September, it was typically as a control officer staffing a principal. This meant making sure rooms were booked, calendars deconflicted, and binders full of talking points — after endless interagency infighting — made it into the right formatting. And after all that effort, most principals often didn’t even have time to read the paper. Usually, 30 seconds before go-time, one of us would be on standby to summarize the key points.

A few takeaways:

1) The world is moving on without us

And that might not be such a bad thing.  In the last year and a half, we have burnt bilateral bridges and disrupted regional and multilateral alliances — helping hollow out the UN through funding cuts, the State Department through mass purges, and USAID through the administration’s dismantling of the agency.  In the past, when the U.S. would show up at a table — no matter the issue — we took up space, for better or worse. Now, the U.S. is increasingly perceived by some partners as volatile or unreliable. The shuffling of hierarchies might mean more creative leadership from smaller powers with new — more decentralized and distributive — power structures.

2) Subnational diplomacy might save us

UNGA’s superpower is to convene. New York’s superpower is Mamdani.  When you combine both, we leave the world with a more complex view of America. It’s a reminder that we are many Americas, and that mayors and governors are some of our most powerful diplomats.  New York City’s dignity-first approach to good governance is a powerful counterweight to the nonstop optics of deadly ICE enforcement, censored press pools, and White House cartoons of “magic deportation buses” with jailed brown passengers.

3) The oath belongs to all of us

This one might be the most important. In every federal job I’ve had — whether the Peace Corps or the Foreign Service — I always felt like my oath was connected to my job. It wasn’t.  The oath was to the Constitution, not to an employer. Defending these values was never just the work of those of us inside the machinery.

If I had 30 seconds to brief a principal on this week, I’d say: the world is moving on, our cities are stepping up, and the oath outlasts the badge.

Josh Richards

The following passages were excerpted from “The Next Atlantic Bargain: Why America’s Evolving European Alliance Must Be Built on Trust,” available in full on our blog, The Truman View.

On the 8th of September, Khalilur Rahman of Bangladesh took up the gavel of the UN General Assembly and opened its eighty-first session with a reminder to the great powers before him, describing “a situation where trust is in deficit,” a diagnosis that would have troubled the leaders who gathered in San Francisco eighty-one years ago to draft the Charter. Rahman had chosen a theme that captured the mood of the moment: “Restoring Trust, Managing Transformation.” Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described the rebuilding of trust in the multilateral system as “the defining challenge of our time.”

The UN commands no sword of its own. Instead, its authority depends on the willingness of countries to honor commitments… But eight decades after its founding, it survives (imperfect and often frustrating), sustained by the expectation among nations that promises made today will be kept tomorrow.

The Atlantic alliance shares that same promise. When the foreign ministers of twelve nations gathered in Washington in 1949 to sign the North Atlantic Treaty, they established a promise, pledging in Article 5 to act “in exercise of the right of individual or collective self-defense recognized by Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations.” 

When Khalilur Rahman reminded the General Assembly that we are in a trust deficit, he offered a warning that applies across the Atlantic alliance. In the same address, he observed that “trust cannot simply be requested. It must be earned.”

If trust served as the invisible foundation of the first Atlantic order, rebuilding that trust through purposeful interdependence may become the defining task of the next and the most important answer that the United States can offer to the challenge Guterres placed before the world this September.