The Foreign Service Journal, September 2006

process in the past, but this is not a compelling enough reason to stick with it. • The time has come to expand the role of the U.N. General Assembly in the selection process. The assembly should play a role early on and assist in identifying candi- dates. The president of the assembly should be engaged in seeking candidates and making those candidates avail- able to the Security Council as envisioned in Resolution 51/241. Ideally, the selection process should start from both ends of the organization and meet in the middle — in other words, both the Security Council and the General Assembly should provide names of candidates for the other organ to consider informally. A deeper sense of process, including more extensive consultations, would increase transparency in a significant way. • General Assembly Resolution 11(1), which calls upon the Security Council to recommend one nominee for appointment as secretary-general, should be amend- ed so that two or more well-qualified candidates are sub- mitted to the assembly for consideration. • In an effort to open up the process, the Security Council, working through its president, should appoint a nominating committee composed of highly regarded individuals with integrity and stature and task them with the responsibility of seeking out qualified candidates. • Candidates seeking the U.N.’s top job should com- municate how they propose to address the most pressing issues facing the organization and the international com- munity at large, including development and the eradica- tion of poverty, terrorism and weapons proliferation. They also should elaborate on how they would deal with the expanding demands on the U.N. system in the areas of peacekeeping and humanitarian assistance, as well as its growing role as a central coordinator for global action on issues relating to the environment and health. • All candidates to succeed Kofi Annan should commit themselves in advance to the full implementation of the reforms he has overseen aimed at modernizing the orga- nization. Those reforms that remain outside the secre- tary-general’s authority should be implemented by the 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 45