This Chatham House meeting is chaired by Professor Marc Weller from the Global Governance and Security Center, International Law programme. Also on the panel are: Rafael Mariano Grossi and Rebeca Grynspan.
The aim is to have an informal chat with the two candidates and to get to know their personalities.
Rafel Grossi is an experienced Argentinian diplomat. He has an international history of civil service. He has worked at the International Atomic Agency for many years. Nuclear non-proliferation is one of the key issues that this panet faces. It is one of the key tasks. It is a difficult area.
It is strangehowoften citing the chatham House rue in international meetings on the first occasion that Rafael should come her eand the rule does not apply!
There is a profound skeptism of nuclear organizations. The selection process of the next secretary-General is one of the most imortant selections in history. Perhps this is a world withno space for multilateral space? He speaks of his organization and what it has been able to achieve. He has seen the use of diplomacy in the resoution of issues with relative success. An example being the resolutionof the Zaporizhe power pplant in the Russia-Ukraine war. You can exercise that role in a way that is seen as conducive to a better situation for both. It is about exercising impartiality in a role like his. Impartiality is a very lonely place. Do you call out an aggressor stae as Secretary-General? You must keep your eye on the ball. The art of diplomacy.
We need a secreatry-general thta is hands on, perhaps not getting it right at every turn but acting for the concrete solution of problems.
The UN is facing financial collapse. The US pays 22% of the budget and it his unhappy and has refrained from making payments. The UN charter is a timeless piece that guides us as a compass. Is UN reform or change to the charter an answer? There is the Pact of the Future. The UN has inherited thousands of mandates. Structure is the most difficult. Should agencies be consolidated? So many have climate in their set up. Coming from Argentina he says’It takes two to tango’, opening questions up to the audience.
The UN machinery for development needs revamping.One of the things he aims to do is to work more constructively with the grass roots organizations.
Rebeca Grynspan is the secretary and general of UNCTAD. I have already seen Rebeca Grynspan at Chatham House where she presented as an official candidate. She hails from Costa Rica. SHe is former vice president of Costa Rica. At UNCTAD she is seen somewhat as a reformer. She initiated the grain initiative in the Ukraine war.
We are in crisis. The UN is being contested. In the conflict scenarios it is a problem that the UN is fading. There is a skeptism of the capacity of the multilateral system to deliver. This is an era of contradictions. Bad things don’t only happen because of bad people but because of bad choices by good people. She believes that we have choice and that the UN can influence international crises. The princliples of the UN charter have to be defended. Her belief in the charter is a strong as ever but she is not defending the UN as it is. It needs to change to adapt to the skepticism.
The secretary-general is the moral anchor of the organization. The UN has become too risk averse.
Her experience in the Black Sea is that you need a very flexible team. At firtst nobody believed in them. at UNCTAD they talked about the wider impact that the blockad in the Black Sea was causing. A lot of ‘nos’ had to be navigated before they got a ‘yes.’ They partnered with important actors in the region such as Turkey.
Regarding finance of the UN she would look at the numbers. She needs stability. They need a space to do what they are committed to do.The financial crisis is linked to the political crisis. The reform of the UN is a step in the right direction. Maybe the security council can be expanded.
There is a nostalgia for the past but during the Cold War things were made very difficult in terms of consensus. We are in a multipolar world that is complex. Without multilateralism it will bring fragmentation. The job is to talk and to engage. She is not promising a perfect UN but she is promising a good UN.
Both candidates made strong representatiosn about their abilities to do the task of becoming the next UN Secretary-General and I found hte lecture to have broadened my views on the United Nations.
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