GZERO World Clips
Explaining: the history of the UN headquarters

The History of the UN Headquarters | GZERO World

Before it became the headquarters of global cooperation, the site of the UN headquarters in New York was known for its foul smell. That's because slaughterhouses lined the block.
The UN buildings were designed by 11 architects and built in 1947 for the equivalent of $130.2 million in today's money. The territory belongs to no government, and it has its own police force, Ian Bremmer explains on GZERO World.
UN headquarters also features the famous Hall or Flags or the huge General Assembly Hall, where South Korean boy band BTS performed last year, and a first-rate art collection.
At the 2026 Munich Security Conference, entrepreneur and Project Liberty founder Frank McCourt makes the case that the internet, and the AI systems rapidly reshaping it, must be redesigned to serve people, not platforms.
At the 62nd Munich Security Conference, Parag Khanna, founder and CEO of AlphaGeo, says globalization isn't dead, it's evolving. Speaking with GZERO’s Tony Maciulis, he explains that countries are forming flexible alliances that expand and shrink based on their interests. “You’d rather be in the tent...if it suits your interest than not in it,” Khanna notes, highlighting how the US, Europe, and Asia are adapting to shifting global priorities.
Sovereignty has become one of the most powerful, and least defined, words in tech policy. At the 2026 Munich Security Conference, SAP global head of government affairs, Wolfgang Dierker, explains why governments and enterprise customers are demanding more control over their data, cloud infrastructure, and AI systems amid rising geopolitical uncertainty.
On the sidelines of the 2026 Munich Security Conference, Annemarie Hou, Executive Director of the United Nations Office of Partnerships, joined Tony Maciulis to discuss the power of women leaders in global decision-making.