Earlier this month, nine candidates for UN secretary-general (SG) sat in the hot seat for a first round of unprecedented ‘informal dialogues’ before the UN General Assembly. Over the course of three days, the candidates rotated in two-hour slots, fielding some 800 questions from member states, civil society groups, and the public.
While the public hearings revealed some insights into the candidates’ personas and their general priorities as well as those of UN member states, they unfortunately didn’t tell us much about the actual prospects of the contenders. There are several reasons for this:
Most importantly, as I noted in February, the …read more
