<p>A group of CGA students recently participated in a five-day GFI to United Nations Headquarters in New York City, where they visited over a dozen offices and permanent missions that included the United States, India, Guyana, and Greece, as well as UN agencies addressing peace, development, disarmament, counter-terrorism, digital governance, and gender equality. Students gained exposure to how multilateral diplomacy actually functions beyond textbooks and headlines, as well as insights into the real mechanisms, people, and tensions that shape international governance today.</p> <p><span class="p-body">&quot;The program challenged and expanded how I understand the United Nations as an institution,&quot; explains <a href="https://www.sps.nyu.edu/explore/degrees-and-programs/ms-in-global-affairs.html">MS in Global Affairs</a> candidate and GFI participant Nabilla Putri. &quot;I learned that the UN is not simply dominated by the P5, but is a vast, interconnected ecosystem of member states, agencies and independent bodies.&quot;</span></p>

<p>&quot;I gained a clearer picture of the UN's structural limitations, bureaucratic slowness and Security Council gridlock while also understanding why the institution remains indispensable,&quot; she adds. &quot;I also developed an understanding on how personal character such as listening, resilience, and self-awareness is becoming central to effective diplomacy.&quot;</p> <p>&quot;Going in, I carried a lot of scepticism shaped by narratives about the UN's ineffectiveness,&quot; says Putri. &quot;What I left with was something more nuanced, not blind optimism, but informed commitment. The institution is imperfect, but the absence of it would mean entire categories of global problems simply go unaddressed.&quot;</p>

<p>Putri's favorite moment of the entire trip was the UN Office Tour. &quot;The building is huge and surrounded by the flags of every member state, as if to say that the UN belongs to everyone,&quot; she shares. &quot;But nothing hit quite like walking into the General Assembly Hall. It was massive since it was built to seat every single UN member state and yet it felt meaningful rather than just big. For someone who grew up dreaming about the UN, standing in that hall felt like a moment I had been waiting for without even realizing it.&quot;</p> <p>This experience reminded Putri that &quot;international cooperation is, at its core, a human endeavour.. And having now met the people who carry it forward,&quot; she adds, &quot;I feel more equipped and more motivated to be a meaningful counterpart to them in the work ahead.&quot;</p>