The Foreign Service Journal, September 2006

Agenda and Priorities It is self-evident that the demands currently being placed upon the U.N. are markedly dif- ferent from those of just a decade ago, let alone those at the organi- zation’s founding six decades ago. As some participants in our dis- cussions emphasized, the U.N. has in many ways become a peacekeeping and peacebuilding organization — a development its founders could not have fore- seen. With 80,000 peacekeepers stationed in trouble spots around the globe, the U.N. Department of Peacekeeping Operations is now the largest deployed military in the world, aside from the U.S. armed services. In addition, more than half of the U.N.’s 30,000 civilian staff are currently serving in the field, engaged in peace- keeping, humanitarian relief efforts, electoral assistance and human rights monitoring. Some participants also noted that the U.N. is being called upon more and more to respond to complex humanitarian emergen- cies. Currently, more than 19 million refugees, asylum-seekers and internally displaced persons receive food, shelter and medical assistance from U.N. bodies. At the same time, the U.N. system is leading the largest international effort against diseases such as HIV/AIDS, malaria and polio. When thinking about choosing the next secretary-gen- eral, participants underscored that any candidate being seriously considered for the job must have the capacity to carry out the aforementioned responsibilities and, at the same time, lead and follow through on the ambitious agenda for reform that was put forward at the 2005 F O C U S S E P T E M B E R 2 0 0 6 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 43 Given the array of tasks for which the secretary- general is responsible, it is difficult to codify the specific qualifications needed to do the job well.