What is the United Nations for?

What is the United Nations for?

Author: Chatham House September 4, 2026 Duration: 34:41

The United Nations convenes for its 81st General Assembly next week amid turmoil around the world that it seeks to bring together. The conflicts in Iran, Ukraine and Gaza, and the US, China and Russia's undermining of the rules-based international order cast a shadow over UNGA. Can the organization renew itself for a dangerous multipolar world? Or is it doomed to the same fate as the League of Nations?

Bronwen Maddox discusses the UN's present and future with Heather Hurlburt, associate fellow with our US and North America Programme; Marc Weller, head of our Global Governance and Security Centre; and Zizette Darkazally, associate fellow with our Middle East and North Africa Programme.

Produced by Podmasters, with thanks to Sara Seth and Stephen Farrell.

Explore Chatham House's latest:

Research paper| What Haitians want from the next phase of UN and international support

Comment | Can the UN close the global AI gap? 

Policy paper | What the Burnham government should do in its foreign policy

Magazine issue | The World Today summer issue

Audio | Africa Aware🎧

Audio | The Climate Briefing🎧

Follow Independent Thinking on your favourite podcast apps.


Hosted by Chatham House director Bronwen Maddox, Independent Thinking brings the institute’s private deliberations into the public ear. This isn’t a rehearsed lecture series, but a direct channel into candid, high-level discussions typically held behind closed doors. Maddox guides conversations with a carefully selected mix of leading policymakers, frontline journalists, and Chatham House’s own deep bench of experts, focusing on the international political issues that are shaping headlines and rewriting global strategies. The tone is analytical yet accessible, privileging substance and nuance over soundbites. Each episode feels like a privileged seat at a crucial roundtable, where complex topics-from shifting alliances and economic sanctions to climate diplomacy and conflict-are unpacked with clarity and intellectual rigor. Listeners gain a clearer understanding of the forces driving world events, hearing diverse perspectives clash and converge in real time. For anyone looking to move beyond the superficial news cycle and engage with the substantive arguments defining our geopolitics, this podcast offers an essential and thoughtful resource. It’s where informed opinion meets the pressing questions of our moment, fostering a deeper kind of political literacy.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 50

Independent Thinking
Podcast Episodes
NATO in Ankara: Is Europe ready for a Russian attack? [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 37:37
This year's NATO summit brought together the leaders of all 32 member states in Ankara. President Donald Trump's return to the summit brought renewed controversy, with remarks on Greenland and Iran underscoring the geopo…
Can Andy Burnham save Labour? [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 39:58
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer leaves No.10 a decade since the Brexit referendum that began the UK's cycle of chaos, and Andy Burnham seems set to take over unopposed. Our experts discuss what the new regime will mean fo…
It isn't easy being green: The UK's net zero trilemma [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 36:18
Can Labour's prized plans to decarbonize power generation by 2050 withstand growing demands for extra defence spending – an acrimonious argument that has already claimed two senior defence ministers? Or pressure to prese…
Ebola in DR Congo: A 'catastrophic collision of disease and conflict' [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 31:35
The major Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo's northeast is not just a public health emergency in an already impoverished and violence-beset region. Armed rebellion, fragile government and a collapse in p…
Could Britain really rejoin the EU? [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 37:49
Almost exactly ten years since Britain's seismic vote to leave the EU, the debate reopens thanks to early skirmishes in the fight for leadership of the Labour Party and thus the prime ministership. Could a credible bid t…
Is Putin losing control of his war in Ukraine? [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 33:24
Is the initiative on the Ukraine war slipping out of Russian president Vladimir Putin's hands? And how has the US-Israel war on Iran affected Moscow? The economic crisis is tightening, and Moscow and St Petersburg are in…