Navi Pillay Wins the Nobel! And Trump Goes Nuclear on the ICC | To Save Us From Hell

Over the last several months, the use of fully autonomous, artificial intelligence-powered weapons has been escalating. These weapons are capable of selecting and killing targets without a human in the loop. But as this technology advances, momentum is building around an international agreement that would establish guardrails for how these weapons can be used and deployed in warfare. At a recent meeting in Geneva, most countries agreed on the broad outlines of such an agreement, though the United States and Russia raised objections. So, can the pace of diplomacy keep up with the rapid development of AI-powered lethal autonomous weapons systems? Joining me to discuss this question is Magnus Løvold of Lex International.

The Rockefeller Foundation recently released the results of a massive international survey examining how people view the state of the world and the role of international cooperation in addressing global challenges. Some 35,000 people across 34 countries were polled, revealing widespread pessimism about the direction the world is heading, but also a strong desire for greater international cooperation to tackle shared problems. Eric Pelofsky, Vice President for International Policy at the Rockefeller Foundation, joins me to discuss the survey's findings, what they reveal about public attitudes toward global challenges, and what they suggest about the future of multilateralism at a time of growing international uncertainty. You can examine the poll here.

It did not receive much attention at the time, but one of the more consequential gatherings at the United Nations during UNGA was a high-level meeting on Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response. The meeting was intended to build momentum toward a global Pandemic Agreement that was negotiated at the WHO last year, but which left a few key issues unresolved. Chief among them is the creation of a so-called Pathogen Access and Benefit-Sharing System, or PABS. The basic idea is that countries that share viral samples with pharmaceutical companies and researchers should, in turn, have access to the vaccines, medicines, and other products developed from those samples. All of this was up for discussion at the UN meeting, but the United States ultimately blocked the adoption of a consensus outcome document. Joining me to discuss what happened at this meeting, why it matters, and what comes next for a global agreement on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response is Courtney Carson, Senior Director of Programs at RANI, an NGO.

Over the last several weeks, fighting has intensified in the country's north. A coalition of seven armed groups recently formed a new alliance, vowing to topple the government of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. The Ethiopian government is fighting back. The conflict is also becoming increasingly regional. Sudan, Egypt, and Somalia are all connected in different ways to the shifting alliances and rivalries surrounding Ethiopia. And there is an even broader geopolitical dimension. Just two days before the new Eritrea-backed rebel alliance was announced, the United States lifted sanctions on Eritrea. Eritrea occupies a strategically important stretch of the Red Sea coast, directly across from Yemen, where Houthi attacks have threatened international shipping through the Bab al-Mandab Strait. Some analysts believe the sanctions relief gives Eritrea more room to pursue its interests in Ethiopia. Joining me today to help make sense of this complicated web of factions, alliances, and regional rivalries is Dr. Jalale Getachew Birru, East Africa Regional Expert with the conflict-monitoring nonprofit ACLED.

Christian Wenaweser is a legend around the United Nations. He has served as Liechtenstein's Ambassador to the United Nations since 2002 and, despite representing one of the world's smallest states, has an impressive record of diplomatic achievements. He played an instrumental role in the development of the International Criminal Court, including efforts to define the crime of aggression. He has also spearheaded several important initiatives at the General Assembly, including the creation of a mechanism to collect and preserve evidence of war crimes in Syria and the "veto initiative," under which any veto at the Security Council triggers a meeting of the General Assembly. These may sound like fairly technical diplomatic maneuvers, but they represent something much bigger: an innovative way of thinking about how small and middle powers can work together to overcome great-power gridlock and achieve substantive goals at the United Nations. We spoke one week after UNGA — a defining theme of which was the banding together of small states and middle powers in the face of intransigence from some of the world's great powers. This included the launch of a new Partnership for Multilateralism and a political declaration on frontier AI, both of which Liechtenstein joined. In our conversation, Ambassador Wenaweser explains the emerging dynamics of an alliance between middle powers and small states at the UN, what they can actually accomplish, and why they these countries are suddenly asserting themselves. Our conversation is free for all, and was produced in partnership with [Re]Group, a substack from the UN Foundation.