How the United Nations Assembly has evolved

Every year since January 1946, when 51 states assembled in London, heads of state and government or their representatives attend the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). They met in London because there was no UN Headquarters in New York yet. There were no Africans in that first UNGA that was for Western countries. Prime Minister Clement Atlee talked of England as “the ancient home of liberty and order”, even as he prosecuted imperial wars.

John D. Rockefeller Jr facilitated the permanent move to New York. He bought land in Manhattan, near the Rockefeller Plaza, in December 1946 for $8.5 million from real estate speculator William Zeckendorf. He bought it for the United Nations and a possible one world government. Architect Wallace Harrison designed the headquarters building that was completed in 1952. Thereafter, UNGA leaders would meet in the new structure.

Leaders kept changing in successive UNGA meetings. The change was particularly dramatic after 1960, the UN Year of Africa, when the UN admitted several former colonies in Africa as members. The change also symbolised a new source of global legitimacy, particularly in Africa, from that of agreements in European capitals to the United Nations itself.

Admission to the UN became the badge of legitimacy for any geopolitical entity. For states in Africa, acceptance by the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), created in 1963, became an additional source of legitimacy. With pressure from African countries, South Africa became a pariah state and survived expulsion in 1974, courtesy of vetoes from the United States, France, and Britain. African states had helped Beijing China to replace Taiwan at the UN.

Networking opportunities

In New York, leaders engage in three things. First, they state their positions on pressing world issues. What is important, therefore, tends to vary. At times leaders are conflictual, emotional or attack their perceived rivals. Nikita Khrushchev banged the podium in 1960 to protest Philippine’s anti-Soviet statements. Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez dismissed George W. Bush as “El Diablo” in 2006. Second, UNGA provides unique and informal networking opportunities for leaders who would otherwise not meet. They engage in extensive informal “bilateral” discussions without attracting much media attention and play advanced diplomacy, passing messages to soften hard lines. Third, the official UNGA involving governments and states is often supplemented by cause “crusaders” who flock to New York to advance specific issues. The 2018 “crusaders” included Ugandans demanding regime change.

There were, therefore, more than two events taking place in New York in the name of UNGA, one official and the other for specialized interests. Besides addressing UNGA to press for the Big Four investments and inviting others for the Blue Economy conference, Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta engaged Unicef, which honoured him as “Youth Agenda Champion”.

Violent type

Not all appeared pleasant. President Teyip Erdogan of Turkey, for instance, used his chance at the UNGA podium to lash out at his onetime political ally, the Sufi reclusive cleric in Pennsylvania, Fethullah Gulen, whom he blamed for his tribulations.

Terrorism, he insisted, was not just of the violent type, it can also be in the spoiling of the youth in the guise of religion, media, and educational institutions. Not far from the UN building, worldwide Gulenist associated institutions held a conference on media, education, and religious freedom that involved prominent journalists and public figures.

Donald Trump was the star of the 2018 UNGA. He delighted in destroying the UN spirit, declared that he wanted globalisation dead and announced reduction in US financial contribution to UN operations. He annoyed France and Iran and had nice words for Kim Jong Un. South Korea’s Moon Jae-in is the matchmaker in the geopolitical “love affair” between Trump and Kim. Before going for UNGA, Moon engaged Kim and probably took a message for Trump. Whatever the content of the “letter”, Trump announced that Kim might visit Washington. He no longer thought of Kim as “Rocket Man”.

UNGA has changed from its 1946 beginnings. It provides special arenas for leaders of the global “family” to ventilate, network, and air differences. The differences were evident as Trump announced the virtual death of “globalisation” and condemned the ICC into illegitimacy. French President Emmanuel Macron, in contrast, struggled to defend multilateralism as the way of the future.

Prof Munene teaches history and international relations at USIU; [email protected]