Six reasons this UN General Assembly is must-see TV

World leaders descend on New York for the annual United Nations gathering, starting Sept. 25. If the recent past is any guide, it can be a memorable, even explosive, occasion. Here are six moments to watch for, to brace for, this time.

3. A muzzled Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran?

John Minchillo/AP
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad speaks at the high-level meeting on rule of law in the United Nations General Assembly at UN headquarters Monday.

In the past, President Ahmadinejad has seemed to relish his ability to send many delegations fleeing the General Assembly’s green auditorium with his inflammatory statements – usually directed against Israel, but also targeting the US and the big-power-led Security Council. With Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatening a military strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities, Mr. Ahmadinejad may opt to throw a few verbal bombs of his own. But some Iran experts, noting that Ahmadinejad is embroiled in a power struggle at home with supreme leader Ali Khamenei, wonder if he might tone down his rhetoric this year.

With Iran’s economy in free fall as a result of UN-approved international sanctions and with the Iranian leadership declaring (and participating in) the Syrian civil war as a battle between regional and international “domineering powers,” don’t bet on it. 

3 of 6

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.