• Secretary-General

     

    The UN Security Council Chamber Reopens With a Touch of Class

    by  • April 29, 2013 • Secretary-General, Security Council • 

    UN Security Council Chamber reopening

    The Norwegians have always influenced the direction of the United Nations either subtly or directly, starting with the world body’s first secretary-general, Trygve Lie, hailing from Norway. Now, with the reopening of the Security Council Chamber after being closed for three years, the country is once again leaving its mark. It not only paid for [...]

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    Ban Ki-moon Backs Emergency Steps for Women Raped in Conflict

    by  • April 19, 2013 • Africa, Secretary-General, Uncategorized, Women's Issues • 2 Comments

    Congo women exhibition

    With the issues of emergency contraception — the “morning after” pill — and abortion still topics of tremendous controversy among United Nations members, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has recommended that both should be offered as part of an international response to the rape of women in conflict situations. Writing in his first report on the subject [...]

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    WORLDVIEWS  

    Will the Next Secretary-General Come From Eastern Europe?

    by  • April 4, 2013 • General Assembly, Secretary-General, WORLDVIEWS • 

    Vuk Jeremic, president of UN General Assembly, left; Giulio Terzi di Sant'Agata, Italy's foreign affairs minister; Cesare Maria Ragaglini (center), ambassador of Italy to the UN.

    Last week, former British Foreign Secretary David Miliband announced plans to move to New York to head the International Rescue Committee, a leading humanitarian organization. In his new position, Miliband is likely to be a powerful voice in debates over crises such as that in Syria. His decision may have inspired some envy at the [...]

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    WORLDVIEWS  

    The Arctic, a Chance for Land Grabs or a New Treaty?

    by  • February 19, 2013 • Climate and Environment, Secretary-General, WORLDVIEWS • 

    Arctic Circle visit by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon

    No country owns the North Pole or the expanse of the Arctic Ocean surrounding it. The Arctic region has a population of about 4 million, including more than 30 distinct groups of indigenous people using dozens of languages; they have lived there for more than 10,000 years. The area also has a unique and diverse [...]

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    BOOKS  

    Kofi Annan: The Back Story

    by  • January 28, 2013 • Africa, BOOKS, Secretary-General • 

    Kofi Annan

    Frederic Eckhard, the United Nations spokesman for eight and a half of Kofi Annan’s 10 years as secretary-general, was certainly well placed to write a tell-all account of that action-packed era. But readers of Eckhard’s new book, “Kofi Annan: A Spokesperson’s Memoir,” get that and something more. Along with the insider accounts, there’s the portrait [...]

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    Deep Flaws in UN Response to Sri Lanka Include R2P Failure

    by  • December 20, 2012 • Asia, Human Rights, Humanitarian Aid, Responsibility to Protect, Secretary-General • 2 Comments

    Tamil Tiger cadres loading up in Sri Lanka

    The United Nation’s internal report on its role during the final stages of the prolonged civil war in Sri Lanka was unusually critical of the Secretariat and highlighted major shortcomings in the UN’s response to the fighting. The report, which was leaked to the BBC days before its official release on Nov. 15, forced top [...]

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    Gender Parity in Upper-Level UN Jobs Remains Elusive

    by  • December 14, 2012 • General Assembly, Secretary-General, Women's Issues • 4 Comments

    Ban Ki-moon of the UN

    This year, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has so far appointed 55 people to high-level positions. Twelve of the appointees, nearly 22 percent, are women, filling roles like the special representative for children and armed conflict and the executive director of the World Food Program. Some of the people Ban appointed include Zainab Hawa Bangura [...]

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    BOOKS  

    Kofi Annan: Lessons in Futility

    by  • October 24, 2012 • BOOKS, Secretary-General, US-UN Relations • 5 Comments

    Kofi Annan

      Kofi Annan‘s existential crisis during his decade as United Nations secretary-general was without question related to the US-led invasion of Iraq. But the most fascinating part of his new memoir, “Interventions: A Life in War and Peace,” is the account of his numerous attempts to nudge the world toward a Middle East peace deal. [...]

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    BOOKS  

    The Quiet Korean: Ban Ki-moon Opens Up

    by  • October 26, 2012 • Asia, BOOKS, Secretary-General • 3 Comments

    Ban Ki-moon

    Over the last few years, an American journalist and academic, Tom Plate, has been writing a series of books called “Giants of Asia.” Lee Kuan Yew, the brilliant if steely founder of modern Singapore, was first. Then came Mahathir Mohamad, the former long-serving but short-tempered prime minister of Malaysia, and Thaksin Shinawatra, a deposed Thai [...]

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    Tough Love Time for the UN

    by  • September 3, 2012 • Secretary-General, US-UN Relations • 1 Comment

    A woman wades through flood waters as she works to save her possessions from her flooded home. Tropical storm Isaac passed across Haiti overnight with high winds and heavy rains, flooding low lying areas of the capital Port au Prince and flattening camps for displaced people from the January 2010 earthquake. Photo Logan Abassi UN/MINUSTAH

    Even though Ban Ki-moon just began his second five-year term this year as United Nations secretary-general, names are already surfacing as to his possible replacement when his term is up. Technically, Ban could be appointed a third term, but no secretary-general so far has held three. Most UN academic experts who were surveyed for a [...]

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