Boutros Boutros-Ghali
- Alan Doss
- • October 28, 2021
The Taliban’s dramatic takeover of Afghanistan in August sparked a predictable outpouring of angst and argument as to why it happened despite the massive, two-decade effort to prevent that result. Much of the commentary focused on the supposed failures…
- Categories: Asia, Peace and Security, WORLDVIEWS
- Thomas G. Weiss
- • June 16, 2021
António Guterres soon will be recrowned Secretary-General after Manhattan’s five-member Electoral College, the permanent members of the Security Council, send its recommendation to the General Assembly for a ceremonial vote. In 2016, his election was an unusually transparent process…
- Categories: SDGs, Secretary-General, WORLDVIEWS
- Ian Martin
- • March 3, 2021
LONDON — Should the world’s top humanitarian official be chosen through a meritocratic selection process open to candidates from any country, or should the choice be restricted to a single nationality and nomination by that government? The answer is…
- Categories: Humanitarian Aid, WORLDVIEWS
- Barbara Crossette
- • December 14, 2020
Ever since the day in 1946 when the first secretary-general of the United Nations, Trygve Lie of Norway, took office, big powers have meddled in how the job is done. Most often, the United States has been the most…
- Categories: Gender Violence, Human Rights, Secretary-General, US-UN Relations
- Thomas G. Weiss
- • September 18, 2018
Was it only two years ago that so many people were elated by the appointment of António Guterres as secretary-general of the United Nations? After public debates organized by the president of the General Assembly and informal ones by…
- Categories: Secretary-General, US Foreign Relations, US-UN Relations, WORLDVIEWS
- Ingvild Bode
- • August 28, 2017
The exhibition “HERStory: A Celebration of Leading Women in the United Nations” was held at the Unesco headquarters in Paris this summer, after it made its debut in New York last year. Designed to showcase the contributions of female…
- Categories: Secretary-General, Women
- Helmut Volger
- • July 1, 2015
BERLIN — If you take a close look at the public schedule of United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, it becomes evident that he travels a lot to member states, even more than his charismatic and most active predecessor Kofi…
- Categories: WORLDVIEWS
- Andrea Bartoli
- • December 21, 2014
The Roman Catholic Church has always been diverse. The New Testament reveals that differences of opinion, practices and orientations have been part of Christianity’s experience since its beginning. The billion-plus Catholics today are not the same as the few…
- Categories: WORLDVIEWS
- Dulcie Leimbach
- • December 16, 2014
Michaëlle Jean, a former governor-general of Canada and chancellor of the University of Ottawa, has been named the first Canadian and the first woman to lead the Francophonie, an association of countries where French is a national language or…
- Categories: GOINGS-ON
- Stephen Browne and Thomas G. Weiss
- • December 9, 2014
GENEVA — For only the second time — the first was in 1996 — the electoral campaigns for the American president and the United Nations secretary-general are running in parallel. Both promise to be long and protracted. Each already…
- Categories: SDGs, WORLDVIEWS
- Barbara Crossette
- • April 17, 2014
There have been eight secretaries-general of the United Nations in the 68 years since the first of them, Trygve Lie of Norway, took on this unique global position. All eight — all men — have been very different in…
- Categories: BOOKS
- A. Edward Elmendorf
- • January 19, 2014
Jan Eliasson has been the deputy secretary-general of the United Nations since July 2012, the second in command after Ban Ki-moon. Eliasson, 73, is a former Swedish foreign minister and was ambassador to the United States twice, among other…
- Categories: Development, Peace and Security
- Barbara Crossette
- • October 16, 2013
Angela Kane has covered a lot of territory for the United Nations, but one of her toughest jobs in a career spanning more than three decades may be negotiating with Syria to begin the still-uncertain process of destroying the…
- Categories: Disarmament, Middle East, Women
- Barbara Crossette
- • October 3, 2013
As media coverage of the United Nations dwindles and becomes more hyperfocused on geopolitics, the public learns less and less about the UN itself and how it operates. Who is to blame for the decreasing, narrow coverage — the…
- Categories: US-UN Relations
- Barbara Crossette
- • August 12, 2013
Since Security Council resolutions began demanding more significant attention to roles for women in conflict areas and the peace-building that follows, much of the discussion has justifiably centered on protection of civilians, because women and their children suffer most…
- Categories: Peace and Security, Women
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