The Selection of the UN Secretary General: Process, Practice, and the Pathway to 2027
Every five years—sometimes 10 years—the United Nations confronts a peculiar institutional exercise: the selection of a Secretary General. The process is remarkable less for its constitutional clarity than for its studied opacity. A single sentence in the UN Charter, Article 97, constitutes the entirety of the Organization’s written constitutional guidance: the Secretary General “shall be […]
The Seven Parts the UN Secretary General Must Play
William Shakespeare wrote that “one man in his time plays many parts” in the theatre of the world. The Secretary General of the United Nations faces the even greater challenge of playing many different parts at the same time. The UN leader has to cater to multiple audiences simultaneously, juggling diplomats, international officials, the media, […]
Global Governance at the Crossroads
The surging contradictions of capitalist globalization require regulation in order to meet the common interest of the whole global community, including both present and future generations. If the contradictions are not addressed through collective action, the human species facing the prospect of extinction in anything like its current form. Almost 40 years ago, the “Bruntland […]
The Future of Global Governance: Lessons From the Horn of Africa
There is a tendency to believe that the future of global governance will be shaped exclusively in the world’s great capitals or within the chambers of its established institutions. Yet history often teaches a different lesson. Some of the most important insights into the nature of political order emerge not from states that inherited stability, […]