As 2025 comes to a close, it’s hard not to reflect on what a devastating year it has been for global diplomacy and humanity at large. Warfare, mass atrocities, pre-emptive strikes on other countries, and the brazen flouting of international law now seem to be the order of the day. The United Nations, the global body that arose from the ashes and mass murder of World War II, in its 80th year, sat on the sidelines of the world’s most devastating conflicts, as states disregarded the international norms it established. For even the most diplomatically seasoned of us, the world feels adrift, with no moral authority or arbiter to put it back on its course.
The UN played no meaningful role in mediation efforts as conflicts raged from Ukraine to Sudan, while the P5 states continued to use the Security Council as a chessboard for their own political interests and ambitions. In the absence of UN leadership, countries such as the United States and Qatar, among others, are now playing the leading role in mediating conflicts. The UN continues to confine itself to the humanitarian field, and while the efforts of its humanitarian workers are brave and noble, the institution is failing to address issues of peace and security that are the root causes of these crises. The outgoing Secretary General is widely seen as having failed to assert any moral, let alone political authority, as confidence in the UN has seemingly slipped to an all time low. Despite these failures and major threats from the US of funding cuts to the UN, there has been no serious attempt to address the institution’s flaws. While the UN scrambled to survive this year, making arbitrary cuts across the board, rather than strategically reordering of priorities, let us hope that it does some soul searching next year.
For two years the world stood by as Palestinians were slaughtered, and the conflict spread from Gaza, to Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and Iran. While a ceasefire in October was reached, the peace plan delivered by President Donald J. Trump effectively makes Palestine into a trusteeship and fails to address the Palestinian desire for self-determination and the root causes of the conflict: continuing occupation of Palestinian land with no end in sight. While the scale of carnage has halted for now, the peace plan is deeply flawed and is not accepted by most Palestinians and doesn’t provide a path that could lead to a political settlement.
In Ukraine, the conflict continues, without an honest broker stepping up to mediate. The Europeans want Ukraine to prevail militarily, while President Trump, who pledged to deliver peace, continues to negotiate with Russia, without Ukraine and the Europeans at the table. It is clear the prospect of settling the conflict is far from sight.
And in Sudan, reports that members of the Rapid Support Forces burned bodies after massacring the displaced in El Fasher made headlines, as regional powers continue to provide the two battling sides with arms. The conflict, which has had no meaningful mediation process rages on – with the African Union performing as abysmally as the UN. Meanwhile, in the Sahel and beyond, we are seeing African democracy decline with the déjà vu of African military juntas, and a return to Cold War rivalries for influence between Russia, China, France and the US, with Russia gaining significant ground.
But it has not been all doom and gloom, nor only diplomatic cowardice in the face of carnage. There is a growing public opinion in both the West and the Global South that the current world order must change. The worldwide demonstrations against the war on Gaza are a case in point. In the midst of the failure of governments and global institutions, members of GenZ in countries like Nepal, Madagascar, Kenya and Morocco took to the streets braving teargas, bullets and arrest and demanding meaningful change. Global human rights institutions such as Amnesty, Human Rights Watch and the UN Special Rapporteurs, have also shown great bravery, rising above the din of diplo-speak and calling atrocities atrocities – if only the think tanks of the conflict resolution and peacebuilding industry could be so bold and principled.
In our 30th edition of Diplomacy Now, analysts and scholars offer insights into the recent violence in Yemen, the future of Gaza, the democratic backsliding in West Africa and the Sahel, the empty peace deal between Congo and Rwanda, and and the fragile situation in Iraq more than 20 years after the US invasion.
As with every edition the views expressed by contributors are not all necessarily our own. However, ICDI remains committed to the ethos and philosophy that open debate, dialogue, diplomacy, and mediation, rather than armed conflict and war, offer the way forward to resolving any conflict.
Thank you for reading Diplomacy Now and we welcome your feedback at diplomacynow@dialogueinitiatives.org.
Jamal Benomar
Chair of ICDI
“The takeover of the eastern governorates of Yemen — Hadramout and Al Mahra — by the Southern Transitional Council (STC) forces represents a major turning point in the Yemeni conflict and marks the beginning of a new phase,” writes Yemeni analyst Maysaa Shuja Al-Deen.
“The developments in Yemen’s eastern governorates have added a new layer of complexity to an already multifaceted conflict. They have introduced new dynamics that are likely to reshape alliances and alter the future trajectory of both war and peace in Yemen,” she concludes.
UN veteran Alan Doss and former peacekeeping mission head explores what lessons can be learned from previous stabilization missions in Gaza.
“As the United States seeks the endorsement of the United Nations Security Council for the Trump administration’s 20-point plan for Gaza, the failure of stabilization endeavors in such countries as Afghanistan, Iraq and the Democratic Republic of the Congo should be a cautionary reminder of the hazards of international intervention,” Doss writes.
“First and foremost, the population must be on board; stabilization cannot be imposed. Armed force alone is not enough,” and local buy-in will remain the most important factor he adds
Dr Oluwole Ojewale, a scholar and Sahel expert based in Dakar, explores the implications of the recent Benin coup attempt for the region, the history of intervention by the Economic Community of West African States and its complicated relationship with the recently formed Alliance of Sahel States. Cooperation, even now military-led states in the Sahel, is key to stopping the descent of coups in West Africa he argues.
“The region must revitalize security cooperation, even with the AES states. Isolation breeds insecurity. Niger’s withdrawal from counterterrorism coordination has created openings exploited by criminal networks and extremist groups, especially along porous borders with Nigeria and Benin,” Ojewale writes.
“Without renewed bilateral cooperation, insecurity will ricochet across West Africa’s coastal corridor. The coup belt creeping toward the coast represents the most significant political and security inflection point in West Africa since the third wave of democracy in the 1990s,” he writes.
Hardin Lang and Mark J. Wood offer a deep dive into the recent Rwanda-Congo, arguing that the deal lauded as the administration of President Trump’s first major diplomatic win on the continent, is already coming undone.
“For this accord to become more than words on paper, Washington and its partners will have to move on several fronts at once. They must secure genuine, unimpeded humanitarian access and restore funding for food, health, and protection programs. They should reinforce — rather than quietly strip — MONUSCO’s capacity to protect civilians. And they need to put accountability for atrocities at the core of the peace process, not treat it as an afterthought,” they argue.
Iraqi-Kurdish journalist Rebaz Hasan explores recent political developments in Iraq and the impact the October 7 attacks and war on Gaza has had on Iraq, a country that now rarely makes it into the news. Exploring the flaws of the power-sharing system, adopted after the United States invasion, and the aftermath of the Tishreen protest movement, Hasan argues that there is more space of mediation in Iraq, a country that has achieved a relative amount of stability in recent years.
“Though the US and UN can play a positive and constructive role in this regard, at the end of the day local actors have a bigger stake at risk and also bigger responsibility to find solutions,” he writes.
Nelson Mandela
