UN aid chief: Preventing World War III is top priority On militarized AI, climate change, Board of Peace

UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher has warned that World War III is a genuine concern, urging immediate efforts to de-escalate growing global tensions.

In an exclusive interview with UAE-based The National from his office at the UN building in New York, Fletcher said he was concerned that humanity was approaching a dangerous precipice.

“I worry we are losing control. Humans are losing control of weapons, of AI, of the climate and increasingly of the global economy, which is being placed on a war footing,” he highlighted.

Fletcher, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator (OCHA), said these forces and “different choke points propel us towards a much bigger war”.

Asked whether this meant a world war, he replied: “our biggest job in the coming year, the biggest job for the next [UN] secretary general is preventing World War III".

UN Secretary-General António Guterres will leave office on December 31, with the race to succeed him now entering a decisive phase. A second closed-door poll in the UN Security Council on August 21 failed to produce a clear frontrunner, although it showed notable movement.

Guyana’s representative Carolyn Rodrigues Birkett, the country’s Permanent Representative to the UN, came first with eight votes, while Costa Rica’s Rebeca Grynspan, head of the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), and Rafael Grossi, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), each received seven. None of the candidates secured the required nine votes, meaning a compromise remains some way off.

Pressing issues

World leaders have gathered in New York over the past week for the 81st General Assembly. Fletcher spent the week moving from one meeting to another, seeking to shift dynamics, particularly in protracted conflicts.

Recognising that time and attention are limited, Fletcher set out 10 direct requests to countries during the week in an effort to save 11 million people. They included allowing female humanitarian workers to operate in Afghanistan, releasing UN workers detained in Yemen and allowing humanitarian operations to resume in both countries.

Asked how much progress he had made toward achieving the 10 targets, he said: “I'd give us two or three out of 10, but those are the kind of odds no one else will take, and so the UN should take them”.

He said progress had been made in “getting a coalition together on Afghanistan to really insist that female humanitarians can work”.

Other areas of progress included the Democratic Republic of the Congo and securing some support for access to areas affected by the Ebola crisis. Another key issue is keeping the Adre border crossing between Chad and Sudan open. Fletcher sounded optimistic on that front, saying: “we think it will stay open.”

Hand-in-hand with Board of Peace for Gaza

Fletcher also sees potential progress on the matter relating too Palestine, where he said a coalition including the Board of Peace was being formed to address humanitarian needs ahead of winter.

“The big focus was on our winter plan, helping 2.1 million people through what will be a grim winter”, he said.

The plan includes delivering 90,000 family tents to Gaza in the coming weeks. Fletcher described the co-ordination with the Board of Peace as “significant”, joking that he spends more time speaking to the organisation than to his family. "I talk to them every day," he said.

He also rejected the idea that the Board of Peace was intended to replace the UN.

“There’s a perception that somehow the Board of Peace was invented as an alternative UN. I don't see any of that. What I do see is a very practical day-to-day discussion around the humanitarian supplies that we need to get in, and there's been improvements”.

Funding cuts

As the outlet recalls, Fletcher took over OCHA during one of the most difficult periods for the international system, marked by severe polarisation, near paralysis of the UN Security Council and major cuts to overseas aid. He said there was nevertheless no choice but to make the best of the situation, describing the funding gap for humanitarian work as “massive”.

While his predecessors coordinated roughly $50 billion in humanitarian response annually, Fletcher has about $12 billion to work with. Even after prioritising those facing the greatest needs and most severe conditions, he said he still needs to secure $23 billion.

Fletcher was among the most vocal humanitarian figures to urge US President Donald Trump last year not to cut international aid funding. The Trump administration has since closed USAID, while US humanitarian funding has fallen sharply under his administration, although the United States remains the largest international donor.

Fletcher said he does not look to the US only for funding. “On almost all of my 10 objectives, the Americans can play a key role in cajoling and persuading”, as part of wider political efforts to influence the behaviour of other actors.

He is seeking US backing so UN agencies can “go the places they [the US] don't want to go”, citing the Ebola response as one example. However, he said the effort remained “a work in progress”.

By Nazrin Sadigova