Overweight and weak: On the UN, the 81st session of the UN General Assembly

The 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) could have been written off as just another year, with another set of speeches delivered on the global multilateral stage. However, this year, the UN’s annual Summit has a unique sense of urgency. This is UN Secretary-General (UNSG) António Guterres’s final session , after a tenure marked by a record number of global crises, conflicts, pandemics, climate disasters and the advent of a dangerous age of Artificial Intelligence. Not since the Second World War have there been so many conflicts; one study recorded more than 65 conflicts across 35 countries in 2025 , the highest since 1946. Growing polarisation on every major issue, wars by global superpowers in violation of the UN charter, nuclear threats and the imposition of unilateral and illegitimate sanctions have weakened the UN, which at 81 seems overweight, weak and unrepresentative of the world.