Middle East

Unlike al Qaeda, which offers victory in some remote era, ISIS, in occupying territory and declaring the caliphate, invites its followers to live in the prophesied paradise now.

Read the full Wall Street Journal book review The Demonic Wellspring

The Republican majority in the U.S. Congress led by House Speaker John Boehner, along with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Obama are engaged in a vital debate on how to deal with the Iranian nuclear program.

There were signs of easing tensions in some parts of the international system last week, but warnings of deepening crises on other fronts.

Read the full World Politics Review article Big-Power ‘Buffering’ Mechanisms Needed to Manage Era of Disorder

It is a truth universally acknowledged, at least among American political analysts, that the struggle against violent Islamist extremism is back in play as an organizing principle in international affairs.

Read the full World Politics Review article U.N. Trapped on Front Lines of New Struggle With Violent Islamists

United Nations peace operations suffered major blows in August and September, highlighting both the organization’s contribution to global security and its growing vulnerability.

Read the full Chatham House report The blue helmet blues

Last week’s top-level session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York offered three basic lessons. The first is that the United States can still dominate the U.N. when it wants to. The second is that a clear majority of other countries’ leaders are quite relieved to follow an American lead. But the third is that the U.N. is only really still relevant in two—admittedly sensitive—regions: Africa and the Middle East.

During his speech at the opening session of the UN General Assembly as well as when advocating for the binding resolution on foreign fighters, US President Barack Obama shifted some attention from the short-term threat posed by ISIS (Islamic State in Iraq and Syria) to the longer-term goals of attacking extremist ideology at its source.

Read the full Asia News Network article US making strategic use of UN to build case

MUNPlanet brings you a special interview with Richard Gowan on the occasion of the Sixty-ninth session of the General Assembly of the United Nations.

Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria, Ukraine and Russia in conflict and the Ebola virus are all continue grabbing headlines as the 69th UN General Assembly gets underway this week. Earlier this week, NY1's Michael Herzenberg got a preview of the session from Richard Gowan of the NYU Center on International Cooperation.

Watch the full NY1 video here

Paris wants a gentlemen’s agreement among the council’s five veto-wielding permanent members not to veto resolutions meant to halt mass atrocities.