War, AI and climate test the United Nations

Edith M. Lederer, MDT/AP

Under a global cloud of wars and bitter divisions, world leaders meet at the United Nations this week facing fears that runaway artificial intelligence could threaten humanity, even as climate shocks and escalating prices make life tougher for hundreds of millions.

Wars in Iran, Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan, Congo and Myanmar will consume the General Assembly, alongside a persisting question: Can leaders do anything to end them?

What can they do about global warming, growing inequalities and economic shocks as blocked shipping routes and supply chains increase living costs and slow growth?

The future of the United Nations is also on the agenda. At 81, its dominant powers remain the victorious nations from World War II. Its 193 members have agreed to reforms, including updating the Security Council, where the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France wield veto power. Implementation remains another matter.

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ second term ends Dec. 31, with no clear successor.

Still, the U.N. remains the gathering place for its members. Some 130 heads of state and government are expected to speak, alongside dozens of ministers.

The absences are telling. China’s President Xi Jinping is meeting President Donald Trump in Washington but skipping the assembly. Russia’s Vladimir Putin is absent, and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has backed out.

France’s U.N. ambassador, Jerome Bonnafont, said leaders must reaffirm that “they prefer cooperation and dialogue to confrontation.”

It has been a tough year for an organization sidelined in efforts to end major conflicts. Unpaid U.S. arrears have compounded financial troubles, forcing cuts to peacekeeping and humanitarian aid.

Yet Richard Gowan, the International Crisis Group’s global issues and institutions program director, says 2025 was worse. A year ago, some feared Trump would announce an American withdrawal. He did not.

Washington recently paid $725 million toward its regular budget dues, enough to avoid losing its General Assembly vote and a strong indication that Trump will keep the United States in the organization.

The U.N. is no longer “in freefall,” Gowan said, but remains “stuck in an open-ended or permanent crisis.”

Artificial intelligence, meanwhile, is moving toward the center of the agenda. Rapid advances have intensified concerns about a technology with considerable advantages, disadvantages and unknowns, without global guardrails.

Days before the gathering, leaders of three major AI companies warned about the technology escaping human control and called for a pause. Trump dismissed their concerns as “a hoax” and urged further advances to keep America ahead of China.

The Security Council added a high-level AI meeting to Wednesday’s agenda, signaling growing apprehension.

For Guterres, attending his final assembly with world leaders, the response must be collective. “At a time when the world faces three existential threats,” he said, “international cooperation is more necessary than ever.”

Former U.N. deputy secretary-general Mark Malloch-Brown said, “While the world still trusts the U.N., the global public is eager for change.” Leaders will also seek attention for rising seas, education funding and the fight for equality.

Hundreds of private meetings will also take place. Esther Brimmer, a Council on Foreign Relations senior fellow and former U.S. assistant secretary of state, said personal encounters can produce ideas implemented months later.

She called 2026 “much more serious and complex than in decades past,” while retaining hope: “Over the past decades we’ve learned a lot about international cooperation.”

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