Although the United Nations (UN) and their subsidiary, the World Health Organization (WHO), were created to be conduits of best practices and policies internationally, their approach to the tobacco industry is counterproductive. Rather than pursue a path of harm reduction, that acknowledges the existing risk of tobacco use and tries to mitigate them within existing realities, both the UN and WHO have prevented any engagement with the tobacco industry. The UN should take a page from the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) successful tobacco playbook and engage with tobacco industry participants.