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[post_content] => At his 2025 inauguration, President Trump said something profound: “We’ll measure our success by the wars we end as much as the wars we never get into.”
“We’ll measure our success by the wars we end as much as the wars we never get into.”
President Donald Trump
This Veterans Day, many of us will pause to remember sacrifice. And the best way to honor that sacrifice? Make sure fewer young Americans don’t have to fight the wars we could have prevented.
That’s what United Nations peacekeeping does.
It’s not glamorous. In fact, its biggest success stories are usually the ones you’ve never heard about. But ask anyone who’s worn a uniform, and they’ll tell you: a crisis prevented is infinitely better than a war fought.
A crisis prevented is infinitely better than a war fought.
The Origins of the UN
Too often, we forget that it was actually veterans who built the United Nations. Harry Truman, who signed the UN Charter for the United States, marched through the mud of France in World War I. He knew exactly what the world looked like when nations stop talking. It’s why he believed so deeply in the UN experiment. To him and his fellow veterans, the UN wasn’t idealistic – it was necessary. It was how they ensured their grandchildren wouldn’t see what they could not unsee.
That instinct still lives on in the Americans who serve the UN today.
Take Michael Center. A Marine veteran and former sheriff from Arkansas – a self-described “Ozark hillbilly.” Today, he’s the UN’s chief security officer in Gaza. His days involve airstrikes, impossible calls and calculating whether a route keeps aid workers alive or cuts civilians off from help. “We might not fix everything,” he says. “But we show up. And sometimes, that’s enough.”
“We might not fix everything... but we show up. Sometimes, that’s enough.”
Or Paul Snyder, who talks about serving as a blue helmet in Mali the way only veterans can – through the small joys that pierced the hardship. “We got excited about fresh fruit deliveries we could bring to the local kids,” he says, recalling those rare shipments amid gunfire that reminded him what he was there to protect. After carrying the remains of fallen soldiers and defending civilians on the brink, he came to a simple conclusion: “We can do better. We owe people that much.”
These veterans know what war looks like – and what preventing one looks like. They’ll tell you they’ll take the latter every time.
Saving Lives – and Dollars
What’s more, peacekeeping is cost-effective – about eight times cheaper than deploying U.S. troops. That means the entire global peacekeeping budget is less than half of one percent of the U.S. defense budget.
But saving money pales in comparison to saving lives.
The UN prevented a near-war between Nigeria and Cameroon. Stopped Macedonia from becoming the next Bosnia. Averted civil war in Guinea. Prevention rarely gets credit because a good day on the battlefield is a quiet one. And that is the success of peacekeeping.
So this Veterans Day, thank the people who laced up their boots for all of us. Then take one more step.
If we truly want to honor those who served, let’s build the world they hoped to leave behind – one where, as our Commander-in-Chief has said, American strength is measured by the wars we never have to fight.
UN peacekeeping is part of that promise. It keeps faith with the veterans who built the UN – and the Americans who serve it today.
If we truly want to honor those who served, let’s build the world they hoped to leave behind.
[post_title] => This Veterans Day, Let’s Honor Our Troops by Keeping Them Out of War
[post_excerpt] => Veterans Day reminds us that the best way to honor those who served is to prevent the wars of tomorrow. Learn how U.S. veterans and UN peacekeeping work together to stop conflict before it starts.
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[post_date] => 2025-11-10 16:14:24
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[post_content] => As Thanksgiving approaches, millions of Americans will take to the skies. With more than 100,000 flights moving around the planet each day, it’s easy to forget how much we depend on the sprawling system that keeps global aviation running.
That system showed its strain last weekend when thousands of flights were canceled after new federal restrictions hit 40 major airports – fallout from the historic U.S. government shutdown. More than 1,400 flights were grounded on Saturday alone.
But even as U.S. runways were jammed, the global air network kept moving. In fact, despite occasional domestic turbulence, is rarely collapses.
That resilience comes from a quiet, indispensable institution working behind the scenes: ICAO, the International Civil Aviation Organization.
The Technical Backbone for Global Aviation
ICAO is what the United Nations calls a specialized agency – a technical body that sets global standards in fields so complex no single country can govern them alone. Others include telecommunications and maritime safety. They rarely make headlines, yet shape modern life.
If you’ve ever stepped onto a plane, ICAO has shaped your journey: the smooth border check, the predictable landing in a foreign airport and the invisible handoff between national airspaces. All of it works because ICAO maintains the global rulebook that keeps aviation synchronized, even when individual countries hit turbulence.
The Global Standard That Keeps the System Running
The scale of aviation is staggering. The U.S. manages roughly 45,000 flights a day. Worldwide, aviation supports nearly $6 trillion in economic activity, with American aerospace manufacturers adding more than $118 billion in exports every year. It's one of the most complex systems humans have ever built. None of it would function if every country made up its own rules.
Since 1944, ICAO has built the shared technical language that allows aviation to operate across borders. Its standards shape nearly every aspect of flight – airworthiness, cabin safety, fueling practices, cybersecurity protections, air traffic procedures and even airport design. More than two hundred American experts sit on ICAO’s technical panels, helping shape global norms on collision avoidance, drones, sustainable aviation fuels and emerging technologies. Because of this work, an aircraft built in Seattle can fly to Singapore without rewriting a single procedure.
Countries align with ICAO because the alternative – a fragmented and incompatible sky – would ground global aviation.
Keeping the Skies Safe – Everywhere
Safety is ICAO’s beating heart. Its Regional Aviation Safety Groups bring governments and industry together to share data and strengthen safety culture, while oversight and accident investigation bodies ensure lessons learned in one region improve practices worldwide.
Training is equally important. Many aviation authorities and air navigation providers depend on ICAO’s technical expertise – particularly nations without agencies as large or well resourced as the FAA. ICAO continually updates global safety norms to keep standards grounded in evidence, not political or commercial pressure.
Border Security and the Machinery of Travel
Global aviation doesn’t end at the runway. Crossing borders requires another layer of global coordination, and ICAO plays a central role here, too.
Through its National Facilitation, or FAL, Programme, ICAO helps countries streamline border clearance, strengthen identity verification and adopt compatible systems. One of ICAO’s most recognizable achievements is the universal adoption of machine-readable passports. If your passport has the small circle-within-two-rectangles symbol, that’s ICAO’s mark. Since 2015, every country has been required to use these documents, allowing borders to move travelers quickly and securely – and ensuring that even amid this weekend’s domestic disruptions, international screening remained predictable.
Strengthening the Aviation Economy
ICAO’s influence also reaches deep into the economics of flight, like strengthening consumer protections and driving innovation across the sector, often through public-private partnerships. The Montreal Convention of 1999 governs compensation for lost baggage, delays and injuries. Similarly, the airport codes used by pilots and controllers come from ICAO. The Chicago Convention also establishes the rules for cabin safety, staffing, evacuation procedures and baggage requirements. Yep, also ICAO.
America and ICAO – Leadership With Real Stakes
As a founding member, the United States has shaped ICAO from the start.
Today, the U.S. Mission to ICAO in Montreal includes an Ambassador, senior State Department officials, FAA specialists and an American Air Navigation Commissioner who represents U.S. expertise directly in ICAO’s technical work. Inside the FAA, specialized ICAO teams ensure the U.S. remains deeply engaged in the ICAO Assembly and all negotiations that define flight. As one of just 36 ICAO Council members, America also helps set the standards that hold the global system together – especially when domestic disruptions threaten to spill across borders.
Flying Forward
The U.S. government shutdown showed the vulnerability of domestic airline systems. It also reminded us that even amid political turmoil, the global aviation infrastructure holds steady. That stability isn’t accidental: it’s ICAO. As one of the UN’s essential technical agencies, ICAO ensures aviation works the same way everywhere – that safety isn’t optional, efficiency is expected and a plane leaving one country can land in another without reinventing the rules of flight.
[post_title] => Behind Every Safe Flight: Understanding the International Civil Aviation Organization
[post_excerpt] => Learn how the International Civil Aviation Organization, the UN’s aviation agency, keeps flights safe, efficient and coordinated worldwide – even when domestic systems hit turbulence.
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[post_date] => 2025-11-07 17:58:41
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[post_content] => On Nov. 6, the UN Security Council lifted sanctions on Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa. The move came months after President Trump rescinded Executive Branch sanctions in June, saying, “Now it’s their time to shine... Show us something special.” The line drew attention in Washington. To Syrians, it sounded like a test. And whether they pass or fail will hinge on engagement from the international community – especially the United States – to back those words with meaningful support.
“Now is [the time for Syria] to shine... Show us something special.”
President Trump, speaking on lifting sanctions on Syria
That test took on new urgency during al-Sharaa’s recent visit to Washington — the first-ever White House meeting with a Syrian leader and his second historic milestone in as many months, following his appearance at the UN General Assembly, the first by a Syrian president in nearly six decades. Trump’s unusually warm praise, paired with a table that included senior U.S. officials and even Turkey’s foreign minister, suggested Washington was feeling out what a new relationship with Damascus might look like — and whether its rhetoric about helping Syria “shine” would translate into real investments in stability.
Fourteen years of war have reduced seventy percent of the country’s infrastructure to rubble and pushed one in nine people below the poverty line. Before the conflict, Syria’s economy was worth roughly $67 billion. Adjusted for inflation, it should be more than double that today. Instead, last year its real GDP stood at just US$13 billion – an 80 percent collapse.
And yet, a few streets away from bombed-out blocks in the country’s capital, a different picture of Syria emerges. The souq I visited last month in Damascus hummed with life, cafés spilling onto sidewalks. Children headed off to one of the more than 530 schools that reopened this year. The scars of war are everywhere, but so too is the spirit of resilience.
The future of the country hangs in the balance between these versions of Syria – one in rubble and one in renewal. Without a decisive surge of resources and partnerships, that fragile progress may collapse.
With the right support, it could take root and transform the region’s trajectory. A Syria able to provide basic services and jobs not only prevents the outflow of refugees and inflow of adversaries, but represents an opportunity for economic development and stability that benefits everyone – including the U.S – with private sector at the helm.
This is Syria’s perishable moment.
A Syria able to provide basic services and jobs... represents an opportunity for economic development and stability that benefits everyone – including the U.S – with private sector at the helm.
For more than a decade, Washington has provided nearly US$50 billion into life-saving humanitarian aid in the country. That commitment has kept people alive – shelter, food rations and emergency medical care – but it was never designed to last forever. Today, the needs are shifting. Families who once sought shelter now seek steady paychecks and food security.
The good news is that a partner already stands ready to help seize this moment: the United Nations.
Unlike short-term aid groups, UN agencies are built for this exact stage of transition. The UN's comparative advantage is not parachuting in with parallel systems, but wiring core public functions back into place – powering water plants, digitizing health services, rehabilitating schools and restoring municipal functions. They work through local networks and can partner with diaspora talent and leading global NGOs to build capacity that lasts rather than quick fixes that fade.
UN agencies are built for this exact stage of transition... not parachuting in with parallel systems, but wiring core public functions back into place.
Take food subsidies. Each day, the World Food Programme provides bread to two million Syrians. “Food security is national security,” a WFP official told me on that same trip to Damascus. Bread is more than calories; it’s a deterrent against militia recruitment, communal violence and forced migration.
And it’s not only the big programs. The UN’s strength lies equally in the small interventions that add up. A $500 grant enables a farmer to restart a market. Solar panels keep the doors of a clinic open. These modest, medium-term measures mark the difference between a country stuck in perpetual emergency and one able to stand on its feet.
The UN is also a critical resource for the more than one million Syrians who have returned home to rebuild. These returnees bring capital, skills and a willingness to invest in the future of their country – only if the basic conditions of stability are there.
The upcoming Trump-al-Sharaa meeting underscores that alignment. It represents an opportunity for the United States to shape Syria’s post-war trajectory, to secure cooperation against lingering terrorist threats and to channel reconstruction through transparent, UN-led frameworks that serve both humanitarian and strategic goals.
Washington has a choice. We can drift into another decade of costly humanitarian triage, spending billions to keep people barely afloat. Or we can back a focused UN-led surge that restores the basics, helps refugees go home, fosters business growth and allows America to exit with success.
If helping Syria “shine” is truly a priority of the Administration, now’s the moment. The president’s visit to Washington is not just symbolic; it’s a test of whether we see Syria’s fragile peace as a liability to manage or a chance to lead. Because this perishable moment won’t last – and the UN can help us seize it.
This perishable moment won’t last. The UN can help us seize it.
[post_title] => How U.S. Backing Can Preserve Syria's Perishable Moment
[post_excerpt] => As Syria’s president visits Washington, the U.S. faces a pivotal choice: renew support for Syria’s recovery and the UN — or risk another regional collapse.
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[post_content] => Often called the world’s top diplomat, the Secretary-General (SG) of the United Nations is part CEO, part crisis manager and full-time advocate for eight billion people. One predecessor famously described it as “the most impossible job on earth.”
As Americans head to the polls, the UN is preparing for an election of its own – the selection of the next Secretary-General in 2026. Here’s a look at how that process works, and why it matters more than ever.
Step 1 – Nominations Open
About a year before the current SG's term ends, the presidents of the UN Security Council and the General Assembly send out a joint letter inviting Member States to nominate candidates.
Anyone backed by a country can run – typically a former head of government, foreign minister or senior diplomat. In 2016, for the first time, candidates published their résumés and vision statements online – a major step toward transparency in what had long been a closed process.
Step 2 – Security Council Shortlist
The real competition begins inside the 15-member Security Council. Behind closed doors, ambassadors conduct a series of “straw polls,” marking each candidate as encourage, discourage or no opinion.
The five Permanent Members – the United States, Russia, China, France and the United Kingdom – use color-coded ballots so others can see if a P5 member objects. A single “no” from any of them can end a campaign.
After several rounds – it took six in 2016 – one candidate usually emerges without a P5 veto. Only then does the Council hold a formal vote to recommend that person to the General Assembly.
Step 3 – General Assembly Approval
From there, the 193-member General Assembly votes to appoint the Security Council’s nominee – usually by acclamation, meaning applause rather than a roll call.
The Secretary-General serves a five-year term, renewable once, a convention broken only once in UN history. The process reflects the UN’s delicate balance of power: every country gets a say, but no one gets the job without the P5’s approval.
The Unwritten Rules
Much of what determines the outcome isn’t written down, but it shapes every race.
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No Superpower Nationals: No citizen of a P5 country has ever become Secretary-General, as it would be viewed as biased.
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Regional Rotation: The job informally rotates among world regions. After an African (Kofi Annan) came an Asian (Ban Ki-moon) then a European (António Guterres). Many expect the next SG to come from Latin America.
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Two-Term Tradition: Most SGs serve two terms if they keep the major powers onside. Only one – Boutros Boutros-Ghali – was denied a second term when the U.S. cast a lone veto in 1996.
Reform and the Road Ahead
For decades, the SG selection was a backroom deal among big powers. That began to change in 2015 with the “1 for 7 Billion” campaign, which pushed for open nominations, public candidate lists and hearings before the General Assembly.
The 2016 contest was the most transparent in UN history. Candidates faced public Q&A sessions, as well as engagement with the media and civil society.
With Guterres’s second term ending in 2026 (he began his second term on January 1, 2022), the next race is set to unfold under even greater scrutiny. Candidates must publish vision statements, disclose campaign donors and step aside from any UN posts to avoid conflicts of interest.
There’s also growing momentum for a historic first: electing a woman. After eight decades and nine men, many diplomats and activists say it’s time for the UN’s leadership to reflect its own values of equality and representation.
Who’s Already in the Running?
While the race to lead the UN is just beginning, three contenders have already stepped forward – each bringing distinct experience and style. Michelle Bachelet of Chile, twice elected president and later the UN’s top human rights official; Rebeca Grynspan of Costa Rica, a former vice president and now head of the UN Conference on Trade and Development; and Rafael Grossi of Argentina, the longtime chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
More nominations are expected as Member States test the political winds in New York ahead of the formal start to the race.
Why It Matters
The UN Charter calls the Secretary-General the “chief administrative officer” of the organization. In practice, the role blends diplomacy, leadership and moral authority – “equal parts diplomat and advocate, civil servant and CEO,” as the UN describes it.
And while the Secretary-General may not be a world president, their influence is profound – from rallying humanitarian aid to mediating conflicts and holding the powerful accountable. Ensuring that the planet's top diplomat is chosen openly and fairly isn’t just bureaucratic housekeeping – it’s democracy on a global stage.
[post_title] => Becoming Secretary-General: How the World’s Top Diplomat Gets the Job
[post_excerpt] => As the UN prepares to elect a new Secretary-General in 2026, here’s how the world’s top diplomat is chosen — and why the process matters.
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Veterans Day reminds us that the best way to honor those who served is to prevent the wars of tomorrow. Learn how U.S. veterans and UN peacekeeping work together to stop conflict before it starts.
Learn how the International Civil Aviation Organization, the UN’s aviation agency, keeps flights safe, efficient and coordinated worldwide – even when domestic systems hit turbulence.
As Syria’s president visits Washington, the U.S. faces a pivotal choice: renew support for Syria’s recovery and the UN — or risk another regional collapse.
As the UN prepares to elect a new Secretary-General in 2026, here’s how the world’s top diplomat is chosen — and why the process matters.
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11/11/2025
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10/16/2025
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