Guterres enters final UN General Assembly with legacy shaped by a more divided world

FINDING ROOM TO ACT

Faced with those constraints, observers said Guterres increasingly focused on areas where the UN could still exert influence, including climate change and artificial intelligence.

On AI, he sought to carve out a role for the organisation in shaping international governance of the rapidly developing technology, an area where member states have found some common ground.

Guterres also helped broker the Black Sea Grain Initiative, which allowed Ukraine to export grain and other food products from its Black Sea ports during the war. Russia withdrew from the agreement in 2023.

“Guterres led a lot of personal investment and direct diplomacy with Russia, with Turkiye, with Ukraine,” Forti said.

But such diplomatic breakthroughs were limited, with deep divisions among the world’s major powers constraining the UN’s ability to respond to global crises.

Simon Adams, professor of human rights at Murdoch University in Australia, said the geopolitical environment undoubtedly made Guterres’ job more difficult.

“But that doesn’t negate the fact that the office does carry enormous moral authority, and that he could, in creative and courageous ways, challenge them to uphold their own promises to the organisation and their promises to the world, and to show leadership in different kinds of ways,” he added.

“I just don’t think he’s wielded that moral authority particularly courageously or consistently.”

Forti similarly said Guterres “missed an opportunity to push the UN forward, even as the context got more difficult”.