The Foreign Service Journal, September 2020

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | SEPTEMBER 2020 51 COVER STORY THE U.N. AT 75 A career FSO and veteran United Nations official reflects on this unique institution and its value today. BY J E F FREY F E LTMAN U.N. Relevance Depends on U.S. Leadership Jeffrey Feltman is the John C. Whitehead Visiting Fellow in Foreign Policy at the Brookings Institution. He served as United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs from 2012 to 2018. Before retiring from the State Department with the rank of Career Minister in 2012, he was the assistant secretary of State for Near Eastern affairs (2009-2012). He served as U.S. ambassador to Lebanon (2004- 2008) and had postings in Baghdad, Erbil, Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Tunis, Amman, Budapest and Port-au-Prince. “Y ou are like the Secretary of State for the United Nations,” United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon remarked in July 2012 when swearing me in as United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs. A flattering pretension, yes, but I had no expectations given relative authorities, funding and staffing levels that my ex-boss Hillary Rodham Clinton or Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov would suddenly embrace me as a peer. As head of the United Nations Department of Political Affairs (or DPA, now the Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs), I oversaw the organization’s global political work, all focused on preventing and resolving conflict. DPA provides ISTOCKPHOTO.COM/IAN_TIMBERLAKE