Washington has waged a difficult battle to reform the UN’s chief rights body while facing challenges to its role as rights watchdog.

UN negotiators have produced a proposal for revamping the UN's top human rights body. But U.S. opposition to the proposal, which it says will not prevent repressive states from joining, could slow the UN rights reform process.

With UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan due to step down at the end of 2006, the next year will be a time of reflection for the world body and its attempts at reform.

With the recent revelation of a United Nations inquiry into U.S. drone strikes policies and practices, Micah Zenko says the UN has actually been investigating U.S. drones for ten years—but to no effect.

Colonel Gregory K. James, USA; Colonel Larry Holcomb, USMC; and Colonel Chad T. Manske, USAF argue that the success of Operation ODYSSEY DAWN, despite its complexity, validates joint planning processes, joint education foundations, joint training opportunities, and joint exercises.

Matthew C. Waxman examines whether cyberattacks are a use of force as defined by the UN Charter.

Leslie H. Gelb discusses the African Union's cease-fire proposal in Libya.

Leslie H. Gelb says the United States is participating in the no-fly zone over Libya despite the absence of vital U.S. interests there.

Micah Zenko and Rebecca R. Friedman argue that rather than create a comprehensive early warning system for preventing conflict, the UN can focus on other reforms to improve its ability to analyze and absorb existing early warning information.

Stewart M. Patrick says Brazil's recent involvement in tensions between Iran and the United States underscored Brazil's determination to play on the global stage, but it may also have harmed Brazil's chances for a UN Security Council seat.

Walter Russell Mead says that Turkey and Brazil's rejection of UN sanctions against Iran revealed that neither country had mastered the challenges of operating in the international system.

Scott A. Snyder says that unless evidence of leadership instability in North Korea is concrete, diplomacy with the North must continue.

Elliott Abrams says that amidst the international frenzy over the Gaza flotilla disaster, the Obama administration has abandoned Israel at the United Nations.

Scott A. Snyder suggests benchmarks by which to judge the response of the United Nations and the Obama administration to North Korea's rocket test.

The UN Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) was passed on March 28, 2013, and seeks to regulate and limit trade in arms in circumstances of human rights violations. Unfortunately, it will have minimal effect on the Syrian conflict. Syria's own vote against the treaty, along with Iran's and North Korea's, sounded the death knell for a universally applicable treaty to limit small arms, ammunition, and conventional weapons technology.

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The UNSC is unlikely to be altered any time soon. Any resolution to expand the UNSC would need to garner the support of two-thirds of the 193 members of the UN General Assembly (UNGA), or 129 votes, as well as endorsement by the five permanent members to succeed.

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Helen Clark discusses the 2013 Human Development Report, The Rise of the South: Human Progress in a Diverse World. The report identifies more than forty developing countries that have done better than expected in human development in recent decades, with their progress accelerating markedly over the past ten years.