Search
AI-powered search, human-powered content.
scroll to top arrow or icon

Preventing conflicts before they start, with María Fernanda Espinosa

As calls for UN reform grow louder, Executive Director of GWL Voices and former General Assembly President María Fernanda Espinosa warns that global peace efforts remain too reactive and that true reform begins with prevention.

“It means building peace, having a very strong and well-equipped intellectually oversight machinery, to have a scenario-building machinery, to have early warning systems in place,” she tells GZERO Media’s Tony Maciulis on the sidelines of the Paris Peace Forum. Espinosa calls for a “refocus, not austerity,” to strengthen the UN’s early warning systems and invest in prevention. “One dollar in prevention saves a thousand in response,” she notes.

Turning to climate, she urges faster action ahead of COP30 in Brazil, warning that progress “is not matching the science.” Latin America, she says, must lead with resilience and unity despite political divides.

This conversation is part of GZERO Media’s Global Stage series, presented in partnership with Microsoft.

More from Global Stage

Can we use AI to secure the world's digital future?

How do we ensure AI is safe, available to everyone, and enhancing productivity? It’s a big topic at this year’s UN General Assembly. That’s why GZERO’s Global Stage livestream brought together leading experts at the heart of the action for “Live from the United Nations: Securing our Digital Future,” an event produced in partnership between the Complex Risk Analytics Fund, or CRAF’d, and GZERO Media’s Global Stage series, sponsored by Microsoft.

Is the Europe-US rift leaving us all vulnerable?

As the tense and politically charged 2025 Munich Security Conference draws to a close, GZERO’s Global Stage series presents a conversation about strained relationships between the US and Europe, Ukraine's path ahead, and rising threats in cyberspace.

Rebeca Grynspan on reforming the UN for a new era

As the United Nations marks its 80th anniversary, UNCTAD Secretary-General Rebeca Grynspan argues that reform must begin with recognizing how much the world has changed since 1945.

Responsible AI for a digital world

How do we ensure AI is trustworthy in an era of rapid technological change? Baroness Joanna Shields, Executive Chair of the Responsible AI Future Foundation, says it starts with principles of responsible AI and a commitment to ethical development.

Agentic AI: How it could reshape identity and politics

As AI begins to understand us better than we understand ourselves, who will decide how it shapes our world? Ian Bremmer cautions, "The winner or the winners are going to determine in large part what society looks like, what the motivating ideologies are."

How society plays an active role in shaping the future with AI

Who really shapes and influences the development of AI? The creators or the users? Peng Xiao, Group CEO, G42 argues it’s both. “I actually do not subscribe that the creators have so much control they can program every intent into this technology so users can only just respond and be part of that design,” he explains at the 2025 Abu Dhabi Global AI Summit.