Welcome to the fourth edition of Trends 360, the bimonthly newsletter from TRENDS Research & Advisory. Each issue unpacks critical global developments shaping the international landscape, from shifting alliances and great power rivalries to emerging policy disruptions. This month, we turn our attention to the role-or, some would argue, the diminishing role and the credibility of the United Nations.
The year 2025 marked the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), under the theme “Better Together: 80 Years and More for Peace, Development, and Human Rights.” While setting the tone to place increased emphasis on the ideals the United Nations was founded upon, it also underscores a deeper reality: the ongoing decay of multilateralism on the world stage.
The United Nations stands at a crossroads between endurance and obsolescence. The distance between its founding ideals and today’s fractured realities has widened to the point where many question whether the institution will survive to see its 90th anniversary. Paralysis in the Security Council, persistent funding cuts, and growing distrust among member states have left the UN struggling to assert moral or political authority. Yet amid calls for reform, the organization’s survival may ultimately depend on its ability to adapt to an international order defined less by cooperation and more by competition.
