A year ago, the United Nations looked exhausted. It was short of money, politically battered, and increasingly dismissed as a relic of a post-1945 order that no longer commanded the great powers' obedience. The wars in Gaza and Ukraine had exposed the paralysis of the Security Council. The humanitarian system was overstretched. The United States, under Donald Trump, seemed prepared not merely to criticize the UN but to disengage from large portions of it. Speculation even suggested that alternative forums