On Tuesday, December 16, the Starling Institute hosted a virtual discussion (recording below) on "The Helms-Biden Playbook: Lessons from a Previous Impasse in the UN budget and U.S.-UN Relations". We discussed the historical context of the Helms-Biden deal and the implications for today's crisis. The panel, moderated by Starling Institute CEO, Minh-Thu Pham, included:

• Robert C. Orr, Professor, UMD School of Public Policy; Former Deputy to the U.S. Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, 1996–2001

• Mark P. Lagon, Chief Policy Officer, Friends of the Global Fight Against AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria; Senior Staff on the Helms-led Senate Foreign Relations Committee, 1999–2001

• Suzanne Nossel, Senior Advisor, Starling Institute; Former Deputy to the Ambassador for UN Management and Reform at the U.S. Mission to the UN, 1999–2001 & the lead negotiator of the agreement underpinning Helms-Biden

• Brett D. Schaefer, Senior Fellow, American Enterprise Institute; Former Senior Research Fellow, Heritage Foundation

Photo Credit: The Jesse Helms Center Foundation

Eighty years after its founding, the United Nations today faces a financial crisis as Member States fail to pay their dues in full and on time. In particular, the United States has thus far withheld all funding to the UN regular budget and sharply reduced its voluntary contributions to the UN's funds and programs, leaving a critical 22 percent hole in the UN regular budget and a crisis across the UN system. Meanwhile the Chinese Government paid their assessment in October, giving the UN little time to spend it before the remainder returns to Beijing at year's end; furthermore the UN's second largest contributor to the regular budget has traditionally also offered relatively paltry voluntary contributions to the rest of the UN system.

Members of the U.S. Congress have often become frustrated with the relative levels of U.S. contributions to the UN's budget, and questioned the UN's relevance to American interests. In the 1990s, Republican politicians, led by Senator Jesse Helms (R-NC), resisted releasing U.S. dues payments absent a recalculation of budget formulas and certain reforms to the institution. After more than a year of negotiations, U.S. Ambassador to the UN Richard Holbrooke reached an agreement with UN Member States to lower the U.S. contribution in the regular budget from 25 percent to 22 percent, where the U.S. assessment rate is today, and Senator Helms freed the first set of blocked funds in 2000.

The Starling Institute held this virtual discussion on reflections from the last major UN budget and arrears crisis and Helms-Biden negotiations and considered paths to addressing the UN's current financial crisis and rebuilding the U.S.–UN relationship. We may be in a different moment, but there is an opportunity to learn from the past.

Conversation & Garden Reception at the Instituto Cervantes

On Tuesday, September 23, 2025, New America and the Starling Institute hosted an exciting conversation (recording above) during United Nations High-Level Week.

We explored three central questions. What would it mean to re-imagine a new global order? Should a reimagined order be based on shared values? What are the near coalitions that need to happen?

The conversation opened with brief opening provocations, or 'lightning talks' by:

• Martín Abregú, Vice President of International Programs at the Ford Foundation

• Amitabh Behar, Executive Director of Oxfam International

• Richard Gowan, UN and Multilateral Diplomacy Director at the International Crisis Group

• Kate Higgins, CEO of Cooperation Canada

• Stewart Patrick, Senior Fellow and Director of the Global Order and Institutions Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

• Zane Dangor, Director General of the Department of International Relations and Cooperation, South Africa

• Mariana Mazzucato, Professor of Economics of Innovation and Public Value, University College London

The discussions offered some important insights:

• There was broad agreement that the time for action is now and that the current multilateral system is approaching a breaking point. That said, we are still lacking a clear blueprint on how to shape the future toward the system we want to see.

• Regaining public support for multilateralism will require concrete steps to tackle real issues and address the economic insecurity felt by so many while demonstrating the centrality of global cooperation to a promising future.

• It is time for middle powers to step up. After 80 years of waiting for great powers to lead, there is a space, with great powers unable or unwilling, to break the mold and act.

• Reform the current system rather than try to rebuild it from scratch. Middle power leadership requires a functioning multilateral system. There is opportunity to build upon what exists and shape institutions that support a promising future.

• Build a coalition of the willing. The moment calls for a flexible network of states, united by both trust and self-interest, that are ready and capable to step up.

• Hold principles to account. As we rethink the system, equity, solidarity, and sustainability must be central.

• Peace and Security remains challenging. Without the active engagement of the great powers, middle powers will likely find an international security system difficult to maintain.

On Wednesday July 30, 2025, the Starling Institute gathered approximately 80 participants in New York City, and online, to discuss the expectations, opportunities, and risks of Secretary-General Antonio Guterres' UN80 Initiative. The discussion focused particularly on the contested vision for the reforms under UN80, and the opportunities and risks associated with comprehensive reform in a moment of geo-political tensions and acute budget pressures.

The road to the Compromiso de Sevilla outcome of the 4th International Conference on Financing for Development (FFD4) offers a window into multilateralism today and where it's going. Are we witnessing a recalibration or a fundamental reshaping of how nations collaborate — and how do we harness this moment for change?

The Starling Institute & Devex held an important conversation on what FFD4 says about the state of multilateral cooperation. The event took place at Casa Devex (Villa Luisa) in Sevilla, Spain on June 30, 2025 on the sidelines of the United Nations FFD conference.

On May 28, 2025, the Starling Institute convened a private discussion of senior diplomats and UN experts on strategy, planning, and support around the reform and budget efforts bundled under the "UN80" initiative. The conversation explored how a coalition of constructive and multilateralist-minded member states, with the support of experienced outside experts, could advance UN80 in constructive ways.

On May 15, 2025, the Permanent Mission of Tuvalu to the United Nations and the Starling Institute co-hosted a private breakfast meeting for representatives of the Pacific Small Island Developing States (PSIDS) on the negotiations of the outcome document of the 4th Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4). The meeting aimed to provide a space for PSIDS to convene around a joint set of priorities, strategize for the negotiations in the lead up to the Seville conference.

The Starling Institute hosted a private lunch conversation among about twenty Member State Ambassadors as well as leaders in development finance, to discuss the future of international development cooperation, particularly for the most vulnerable, on the sidelines of the 2025 Financing for Development Forum. We explored what policies and changes countries could be supportive of that could help offset reductions and increase financing to those most in need. The discussion explored ways to support development finance and leverage greater collaboration on issues including reforms to the global financial infrastructure, addressing sovereign debt relief, the power of new partnerships, and encouraging greater transparency and local ownership of aid flows.

On April 17, 2025, the Permanent Mission of Nepal, as Chair of the Least Developed Country Group (LDCs), and the Starling Institute convened a retreat for LDC Ambassadors and experts. Less than three months before the FfD4 conference in Sevilla, Spain, the retreat aimed to help clarify this group's collective development finance priorities and how best to achieve them. Representatives from 22 of the 44 LDCs and UN experts participated in the day-long session.

On March 3, 2025, the Starling Institute convened 34 participants from 12 Least Developed Countries for a private meeting to explore strategies for LDCs to secure a successful outcome at FfD4. Given the Sustainable Development Goals will not be achieved if significant progress is not made in LDCs, this event focused on enabling LDC diplomats to more effectively engage in FfD negotiations to advance the needs of LDCs.