On Saturday 28 February, as the world was following the launch of US and Israeli missiles over Tehran and the confirmation of the death of Iran’s supreme leader, I wondered if my work for the United Nations on global disarmament still makes sense.
Operation Epic Fury and Operation Roaring Lion, as the US and Israel have named their respective joint military campaigns in Iran, and Operation True Promise IV, Iran’s counteroffensive, have already left hundreds dead in Iran – including 165 children and teachers at a girls’ school, according to Iranian authorities – killed American soldiers and Israeli civilians, and spread to Lebanon, Iraq, and countries across the Gulf.
This is just one of multiple wars multiplying across multiple continents. We are navigating an era of fragile multilateralism, with territorial invasions that challenge the international order, and a bellicose rhetoric that normalises conflict. Discussing trust at this point may seem like an exercise in anachronistic optimism. The UN itself, created after World War II to be the forum for dialogue and peace, sees its authority and efficacy questioned daily as an inevitable question arises: why insist on speaking about trust and transparency, particularly regarding global disarmament?
