John Donvan
speaker
2,077 appearances
13 recordings
1 series
first heard Jul 2026
last heard 18 Sep
John Donvan’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 13 in all, peaking in Jul 2026 with 6.
Appearances
The year was 1945.
The deadliest war in human history was coming to an end, and the world wanted peace.
Out of that, the United Nations was born, a global organization devoted to peace and security and human rights.
Given the several truly global crises and challenges of our time and long before that, it makes sense that we would need a truly global body to organize and manage a truly global response.
In the past 81 years, the UN has had a mixed record on international cooperation, with some particularly notable failures, some of which we're going to be touching on in this debate.
Critics say the organization is bloated and outdated and a growing source of controversy.
But advocates tout the UN's efforts in humanitarian aid and in climate change and in its commitment to human rights in an ever more fractured political landscape.
So does the United Nations fulfill its mission?
Is it failing to live up to its promise?
Here in the present moment, the United Nations has commenced its 81st session.
I'm John Donvan.
This week, as world leaders discuss global issues, we ask this question.
Is the United Nations obsolete?
We recorded this debate a couple of years back in partnership with the magazine Foreign Affairs.
Let's get to it.
Arguing for the motion, the UN is obsolete, is Rajan Menon, political scientist and professor at the City College of New York.
His partner is Niall Gardner of the Heritage Foundation and a former foreign policy aide to British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
Opposing them, Angela Kane, former German diplomat and former UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs,
as well as Undersecretary General at the United Nations.
Her partner, Mohamed Mahmoud Mohamedou, former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Mauritania and a scholar of history and politics.
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