How to get the UN’s top job in 9 easy steps
Nine men have been Secretary-General. Eight of them managed to convince the 15 members of the Security Council that they were the right fit for the job. One was just a seat warmer.
If you’re a man — or woman — who wants to be the tenth SG, what can you learn from their experience? Here are nine lessons for those who covet the UN’s top job.
1. Location, location, location.
It is your passport that counts. The Americans hate it, but it’s always someone else’s turn to put forward the SG. In 2016, it’s either Eastern Europe’s turn, or a women’s turn, or both. If you’ve got the nationality of one of the Security Council’s permanent members (China, France, Russia, UK, USA), then you’ve got no chance. You’re already powerful enough.
2. Be a nobody.
Every time an SG is selected, some rock star names will supposedly be in the frame (once Jimmy Carter and Margaret Thatcher were touted as competing candidates by the credulous), but no-one who counts wants an SG with the stature to tell governments what to do. Even SGs such as Kofi Annan, who became famous, were selected because they were seen as unthreatening technocrats.
3. New York, New York.
If you can make here, you can make it anywhere, even to the SG’s suite on the 38th Floor. Every single SG has been a UN insider, usually having served as their country’s Permanent Representative (ambassador) in New York. Kofi Annan was the first to be promoted to the top job from within the UN’s own bureaucracy. Boutros Boutros-Ghali is the only possible exception, but he’d been a foreign minister. The Egyptian mission in NYC is one block from the UN’s front gate. He didn’t need a map to find the SG’s office.
4. Who’s got your back?
Usually, countries are desperate for one of their nationals to head the UN and will work hard to help them secure the honor. Mostly recently, South Korea pulled out all the stops for Ban Ki-moon, twisting arms and offering blandishments in the capitals of Security Council members. If you don’t have your President or PM’s personal support, your job application isn’t going anywhere.
5. Who wants the job? Not me.
Did we say job application? Only joking. Much to the dismay of campaigners (and some countries), the SG’s job has none of the trappings of a well-run appointment process. Campaigning used to be frowned on (Dag Hammarskjöld got the job without even knowing he was being considered), but Kurt Waldheim broke the taboo (along with the one about not standing if you’re a Nazi war criminal). This time you’ll have to submit a CV and meet with the General Assembly, but the horse-trading will take place behind closed doors (with insiders competing to leak their side of the story to the press).
6. Don’t frighten the Americans.
The US believes it is the UN’s majority shareholder and takes its right to veto potential SGs very seriously (a right it shares with other members of the P5). A favored trick is to veto every candidate but its preferred one. It is also the only country to block an SG’s second term (Boutros Boutros-Ghali), though the Soviet Union came close to doing this with the first permanent SG, Trygve Lie. US administrations almost always want an SG who was less troublesome than the last one (and the bar is pretty low right now).
7. But don’t become identified as Washington’s poodle.
Russia and China have found many reasons to exert a veto (a well-qualified Argentinian didn’t get the job because the Soviet PR resented his popularity), but a surefire way to find one or both of them in your path is if you suck up to the US too egregiously. The Americans know this, of course, and will pretend they’re not too keen on you (they did this for both Annan and Ban). Don’t worry about the Brits — they usually just veto candidates the US doesn’t like. And France? The main rule is to speak French (and preferably English with a French accent). But don’t worry, no one in Beijing is yet expecting you to learn Mandarin.
8. Don’t jump the starting blocks.
With few formal rules, many informal requirements, and plenty of vetoes, a compromise candidate is often needed to rescue the Security Council from acrimonious deadlock. So one option is to start early, campaign patiently, and get one or two of the great powers firmly on side. But another is to hang back and start a late run as your rivals fall by the wayside. Wait your way through enough rounds of voting and the Security Council will take anyone who doesn’t seem out and out objectionable.
9. When the going gets tough, stand for something.
SGs seldom enjoy their job, which matches unlimited responsibilities with no power to tell anyone what to do (including most of the people who are supposed to work for you). For every global crisis, the buck will stop at your desk. If there’s a war or a genocide, it’s your fault. If you try to prevail on a government to stop the aforesaid war or genocide, you’ve exceeded your mandate. SGs are dogged by doubt, depression and — in their darkest moments — despair. The best you can do is not to retreat into your shell, but pick a few high-profile issues to fight for. You may not be thanked at the time, but history will treat you well.
David Steven is editor of UNSG2016. He is a Senior Fellow at the Center on International Cooperation (CIC) at New York University, and a senior nonresident fellow at The Brookings Institution. You can find him on Twitter, Medium, Global Dashboard and download his publications here.
