The United Nations’ gathering was an urgent call for our leaders to think bold
If you noticed the city a little empty of the usual politico, media and business types last week, it wasn’t an extension of the official mourning period. As soon as the ceremonials were complete large swathes of our political class decamped to the United Nations General Assembly, the annual diplomatic circus that takes over the east of Midtown Manhattan every September.
Truncated by the Queen’s funeral, what is usually a five day networking, announcement and bilateral feeding frenzy had to be hastily compacted into four days. Pity to poor embassy officials. The international event gave the world a glimpse of the Carolean British state on tour for the first time as Liz Truss took her seat as a leader among the family of nations.
Global food and energy crises are the stock in trade of UN gatherings such as last week’s. The conflict between Russia and Ukraine added a dash of novel urgent great power realpolitik that had not been present since the Cold War.
There was also the question of how to greet anyone with a British accent – expressing sufficient condolences before moving on to matters at hand. Announcing myself as a resident of London, but in a thick Irish accent hammed up for the Americans, I gave more than one experienced diplomat pause as to the correct way to greet me.
Truss and her new Foreign Secretary probably had a different scenario in mind when planning for the General Assembly gathering during their late summer retreats in Chequers. Things turned out quite different, with the need to show due deference to the passing of the Queen and the political imperative to get back to London as soon as possible to attend to domestic matters. Truss was back in London already last Friday to listen to her Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng deliver his sweeping “mini-budget”.
Both Truss and her Foreign Secretary James Cleverly ended up delivering their key contributions to empty rooms or empty chairs – as she addressed a sparsely populated General Assembly and he rebuked a Russian Foreign Minister who had already departed the Security Council.
Elsewhere the UK showed up empty handed to a pledging summit for a global fund to fight HIV where once it had been the driving force. Bono won’t be pleased.
In fairness, Truss’s speech wasn’t the worst of the genre – either by her standards or those of the other typical snooze-inducing addresses in the somnolent chamber. Aside from a cringey “all for one and one for all” call for global unity, whether you agree with her or not, her speech gave a sharply defined view of global affairs probably not exhibited by a British prime minister since Tony Blair. Whether anyone will pay attention to it is another question.
At a lunch in the New York outpost of City favourite The Hawksmoor, I heard reflections from a quintessential convening of smart people drawn from business, finance and not for profits. It’s been three years since this kind of gathering has been able to take place – Covid-19 making the last two summits virtual.
I sensed a slightly chastened tone compared to gatherings of old. One participant suggested it was a time for humility. We’ve not had a good run of it of late after all. The structures and processes that we had assembled at great length and with great effort to shepherd the world forward from our darkest moments – those embodied most by the UN – have appeared frayed of late.
And yet, there were threads of conversation across the week that pointed to ways forward. I met a group of Ukrainian civil society steadfast in their conviction that Ukraine can triumph, and that Russia will be held accountable. I met advocates for justice and equality who are building inclusive communities and workplaces from the ground up. And I heard CEOs and investors taking positions and making pledges that were unthinkable just a few years ago on everything from energy to education and health.
If there was one upside to holding this whole mad geopolitical jamboree in the expensive, traffic quagmire of Manhattan it’s that New York is a city that compels you to think big and bold. After all, as I wish Liz Truss had said in her speech, if you can make it there, you can make it anywhere.