Lucia Mouat

‘He Is Who He Is’: 4 Experts Assess the Record of the UN’s António Guterres

• 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 intrusive. Lie resigned in 1953, before the end of his second, shortened term, with his …

Gender Violence, Human Rights, Secretary-General, US-UN Relations

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Kofi Annan, 80, a Popular UN Secretary-General From Africa, Is Dead

Barbara Crossette

• August 18, 2018

Kofi Annan, the seventh and probably the most popular and widely respected secretary-general the United Nations has ever known, died unexpectedly in Bern, Switzerland, early on Saturday morning, Aug. 18. His death, reportedly from leukemia, followed what initial reports described only as a short illness. He led the UN for two terms, from 1997 …

Africa, Secretary-General

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Now Is the Time for a Female Secretary-General, Says a New Campaign [Video]

Dulcie Leimbach

• February 23, 2015

Convinced that after 70 years it is time to choose a woman for the United Nations’ top job of secretary-general, a new movement led by an academic spcialist on the organization has been assembled to formally support the election of a woman for the job. The current secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon, a Korean, finishes his …

Secretary-General, Security Council, US-UN Relations, Women

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BOOKS

Lonely at the Top: What It’s Like to Be the UN Secretary-General

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 character and personality, in their cultural and political backgrounds and in their views of how …