The Geneva Corridor

What international institutions do and how they decide

Matthias Keller2 episodes2 min of audio114 playsEpisodic

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S1 · E2Oct 1, 20260:4546 plays Preview

A Trade Dispute, From Complaint to Panel

A trade dispute at the WTO moves from a formal complaint through consultations to a panel of three. Matthias and a former panellist explain each step, the timeline, and what a ruling can and cannot fo…

S1 · E1Sep 14, 20260:4768 plays Members

How a Security Council Resolution Is Drafted

Matthias and a former penholder trace a resolution from the first draft shared in a corridor to the vote, including the blue text, the silence procedure, and the paragraphs that quietly disappeared.

About the show

The Geneva Corridor explains the institutions that sit between countries: the UN system, the World Health Organization, the World Trade Organization, the International Court of Justice, regional bodies and the treaties that bind them. Host Matthias Keller spent eleven years as a German diplomat, including postings to Geneva and New York, and he explains in calm detail how these bodies actually work: who sits on which council, how a resolution is drafted and watered down, what a veto does and does not block, how a trade dispute is heard, why a climate summit produces a text at four in the morning, and what happens when a country simply ignores a ruling. Each fortnightly episode runs 40 to 50 minutes and pairs Matthias with a former negotiator, a secretariat official or a journalist who was in the room. It is for students of international relations, people who work with or around these bodies, and anyone who reads a headline about the Security Council and wants to understand the sentence underneath it.

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