There is precious little that diplomats can agree on these days.

But if asked about the state of the world ahead of the annual meeting at the U.N. General Assembly, heads of state and government and ministers alike will describe a globe in massive turmoil.

With two escalating wars raging in Europe and the Middle East, a global economy in flux, and a shifting world order, international leaders are arriving in New York on Tuesday to a situation that is vastly different from this time last year.

“World leaders will be gathering at the United Nations in an era of deep uncertainty,” U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres told reporters recently.

“At the same time, power is shifting.

The world is changing.

And our institutions must change with it.”

The past nine months alone witnessed the audacious U.S. military operation that removed Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro from power, before a deadly crackdown took place in Iran after tens of thousands of pro-government demonstrators took to the streets to challenge the country’s theocracy.

Shortly after, the U.S. and Israel launched a joint attack against Tehran, igniting an ongoing and spiraling conflict, now involving nearly every country in the region, which has since resulted in the effective closure of a critical waterway.

Meanwhile, the war between Russia and Ukraine, now lasting more than four years, shows no sign of ending, as both sides have only intensified their military attacks in recent days, while numerous diplomatic efforts to end the conflict have failed to achieve a breakthrough.

In May, an outbreak of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda raised further questions about the international community's lack of preparedness for the next pandemic.

Deadly earthquakes in Venezuela and Colombia, as well as massive flash floods in Nepal and Tibet, highlighted the worsening impact of human-caused global warming on communities around the world.

In interviews leading up to the annual meeting, current and former ministers, ambassadors and officials from around the world painted a stark picture of the crises afflicting the international community and whether the U.N. and its 193 member states can address them.

They spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity so as to speak freely about international concerns.

“It is a critical moment to see whether some of these issues can be resolved diplomatically,” former U.S. Ambassador Robert Wood, who served at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations under Republican and Democratic leaders, said.

“The U.N. is really at a turning point.

There is no doubt about it.

It was bad last year.

It is not much better this year.”

One European diplomat and another official agreed, saying the world is no better off than it was a year ago and that things have become even more unstable.

The diplomat and the officials pointed to the various attacks on international law, the breakdown or lack of mediation efforts, and the continued failure to reach global consensus on issues like climate, peace and security.

Beyond closely examining the speeches of key figures such as U.S. President Donald Trump, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian, officials hope to use the annual gathering to meet with adversaries and allies on the sidelines, aiming to break the deadlock on issues like maritime security in the Strait of Hormuz and runaway artificial intelligence, among others.

When asked what they hoped to gain from the week of meetings, one Gulf official said it would be great to return to a level of predictability on the world stage.

“In international relations, everything is in flux: friendships shift, and alliances shift,” Tone Kajzer, Slovenia’s foreign minister, said.

“But what remains constant is the interests and how to align those interests so that we live in peace and not in a permanent conflict.”