The election of Portugal’s António Guterres as the UN’s new secretary-general was much easier than some of the huge global challenges he will be facing. He received no negative votes in the poll among the 15 members of the UN Security Council, meaning that none of the five veto-wielding permanent members, especially Russia and the US, blocked him. Months of lobbying and informal votes could have resulted in major divisions in the final stages of choosing the next top UN diplomat, emblematic of the breakdown among large powers on issues ranging from Syria to North Korea.
But when the Security Council cast secret ballots for each of the remaining 10 candidates, none were found to oppose Guterres. This was the first time that the five permanent council countries could have formally used their vetoes against a candidate. It was possible that longstanding disputes could have spilled into the selection process. Instead, they came together for Guterres.
But the expectations that will be placed on Guterres’ shoulders by governments will be huge when he starts work early next year. He and the UN will face a deeply unstable world. He will have to work out the UN’s role in trying to bring stability to Syria when the Security Council is utterly divided on the conflict, with Russia and the US no longer even talking about a ceasefire.
There is also the mass refugee and migrant crises. Guterres is well versed on that issue which has seen 65 million people displaced across the world. For the past 10 years, he has served as the high commissioner for refugees at the UN, a major leadership role that likely played a critical role in his selection.
Guterres also served as Portugal’s socialist prime minister from 1995 to 2002, driving through the financial reforms that secured his country’s membership of the European single market. That might hold him in good stead as he must reform a UN bureaucracy that has become so large and unwieldy that it has lost its ability to work effectively.
The outgoing UN incumbent Ban Ki-moon has been praised for his soft-spoken manner. But governments and diplomats have long wanted a secretary-general with more clout and stronger leadership. Admittedly, when America and Russia are at loggerheads over such matters as Syria, it is exceedingly hard for any UN secretary-general to make peace.
There was some disappointment among those who had hoped for a first female UN secretary-general. Of the 13 candidates this year, seven were women. More than 50 nations campaigned with hopes for female leadership, but ultimately the effort failed. In the end, the highest-placed woman, Irina Bokova, the head of UNESCO, came fourth.
Many of the candidates were representatives from Eastern Europe, which was thought to be the unofficial next-up region. Those hopes were dashed as well.
So for the first time the UN has chosen a former head of government to be the ninth leader of the world’s largest intergovernmental organization. In his five, perhaps 10-year term, Guterres will face some of the biggest global challenges. He must be able to coordinate and cooperate with a multiplicity of agencies to help poor countries step over the line of poverty, uphold human rights across the world and prevent war and end those which have started. He has to run an unwieldy bureaucracy and manage the competing demands of the world’s big powers. It is a massive task, described by the first UN secretary-general Trygve Lie as the most impossible job in the world. Guterres will be judged by his ability to stand up to the very powers that selected him in a process that was notably uncontentious and uncontroversial.
