That’s how the United Nations’ first secretary general, Norway’s Trygve Lie, described the role as he handed over to his Swedish successor in 1953.
asserted
he → ’ → 1953
But according to one of his aides, British politician Brian Urquhart, Lie was especially ill-suited to the position.
uncertain
Lie → accord → position
Urquhart would later describe Lie as “a suspicious and insecure man with a hair-trigger temper”, someone who “seemed to be out of his depth in a complex and very public job”.
asserted
who → describe → job
Seven decades later, the UN is again preparing to elect a new leader as António Guterres steps down from the role he has held since 2017.
asserted
he → prepare → 2017
When the former Portuguese prime minister was appointed to a second term in 2021, Mark Cogan, an associate professor of peace and conflict studies at Kansai Gaidai University in Japan, labelled him the worst secretary-general in history in a scathing opinion piece.
asserted
Cogan → appoint → piece
Guterres had been “morbidly ineffectual, and worse, utterly silent on some of the most consequential human rights crises of our time” argued Cogan, who worked in several UN agencies as a technical adviser and communications specialist.
asserted
who → argue → adviser
Five years later, has he changed his mind?
asserted
he → change → mind
“Absolutely not,” Cogan tells this masthead.
asserted
Cogan → tell → masthead
To be sure, Guterres has faced immense challenges.
asserted
Guterres → face → challenges
His tenure has seen the highest number of conflicts since the end of World War II, including a major return of interstate conflicts such as Russia’s war against Ukraine, the US and Israel’s war against Iran and clashes between Thailand and Cambodia.
asserted
tenure → see → Thailand
While expansionist leaders such as Donald Trump, Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin have trampled over the rules-based international order, Guterres has also had to respond to threats including climate change, the COVID-19 pandemic and, now, artificial intelligence.
asserted
Guterres → trample → change
And he’s had to do it with slashed resources thanks largely to Trump’s antipathy to the UN and the “globalist” philosophy it embodies.
asserted
it → have → UN
At the start of his second term, Trump froze almost all US funding for UN humanitarian work and refused to pay into the organisation’s core budget.
asserted
Trump → freeze → budget
As a result, the UN has had to lay off 2900 staff, nearly a fifth of its workforce, and embark on a radical reform program, even as it tries to plug gaps left by Trump’s devastating cuts to American aid programs.
asserted
it → have → programs
Staff at key agencies have been shifted en masse from Geneva to Nairobi to save money.
asserted
Staff → shift → money
Even so, Cogan says Guterres bears responsibility for “a crisis of morale and of confidence” that he says has beset the UN during his tenure.
asserted
he → say → tenure
He accuses Guterres of practising “church mouse diplomacy” with a lack of focus on universal human rights.
asserted
He → accuse → rights
Like many, he accuses him of soft-pedalling criticism of China’s treatment of ethnic minorities such as the Uyghurs.
asserted
he → accuse → Uyghurs
“Most people I speak to use the word placeholder,” he says.
asserted
he → speak → word
“I don’t see a legacy.
asserted
I → see → legacy
I know that’s damning, but it’s the truth.”
asserted
it → know → ?
“He’s had a rough trot, but he’s been exemplary,” she says.
asserted
she → have → trot
“I think he has cut through and been a voice of reason.
asserted
he → think → reason
In a piece this month in Foreign Affairs, Richard Gowan, the International Crisis Group’s program director of global issues and institutions, argues the UN has fallen into a state of “decrepitude” over the past decade.
asserted
UN → argue → decade
Voicing a common complaint, he accuses of Gutteres of shrinking away from the UN’s peacekeeping role - an area where the organisation can make a practical difference to resolving conflicts.
asserted
organisation → voice → conflicts
Stephen Schlesinger, a historian of the UN, says Guterres has “done his best to keep the organisation alive” but faults him for often appearing more of a commentator decrying the world’s woes than a leader trying to solve them.
asserted
Guterres → say → them
“When it comes to crises, he has been something of a passive observer.
asserted
he → come → observer
He wasn’t a hands-on guy,” says the author of Act of Creation: The Founding of The United Nations.
asserted
author → say → Nations
Schlesigner notes that, even accounting for the COVID-19 pandemic, Guterres has travelled far less than his predecessors, faulting him for not jetting into Eastern Europe in 2022 as Putin readied troops near the Ukraine border.
asserted
Putin → note → border
“A predecessor like Kofi Anan would have been more proactive and tried to ward it off,” he says.
asserted
he → try → it
Daniel Safran-Hon, a former senior UN staffer, noted in a piece in June that Guterres has not visited South Sudan, Sudan, Kosovo, Cyprus, or Western Sahara during his tenure.
asserted
Guterres → note → tenure
Nor did he travel to East Africa when Sudan collapsed into chaos, to Syria following the fall of Bashar al-Assad or to South-East Asia in during the Thailand–Cambodia conflict.
asserted
Sudan → travel → conflict
Under the UN’s rotational system, the next secretary general is supposed to come from Latin America or the Carribean.
asserted
general → suppose → America
There is also a strong view it is time for the organisation to appoint its first female leader.
asserted
organisation → be → leader
Cogan says he wants the next secretary general to be a “norm enforcer” imbued with toughness.
asserted
general → say → toughness
“This quiet diplomacy, this appeasement has to end.”
asserted
diplomacy → have → ?
Schlesigner argues: “They need someone who can spread the gospel of the organisation and try to solve crises before they become conflicts.
asserted
they → argue → crises
One of the leading candidates for the position, Ecuadorian diplomat María Fernanda Espinosa, has argued the UN is in dire trouble and will drift further into paralysis without major change.
asserted
UN → lead → change
“What is now in question is not the relevance of the United Nations, but its credibility,” she said in her vision statement for the role.
asserted
she → say → role
“Often, the organisation is slow when it should be decisive, fragmented when it should be aligned, and procedural when it should act with purpose.
asserted
it → align → purpose
…and 43 more, not listed.
The Aporia
