PostGlobal: the next Secretary General

The new PostGlobal question is out over at the Washington Post. 

Here's the question, posed by David Ignatius:

"15 nations gather this week in New York to conduct a straw vote on who is to be the next U.N. Secretary General. Leading candidates include South Korea's Ban Ki Moon, India's Shashi Tharoor and Jordan's Prince Zeid Raad al-Hussein. Who is the right successor to Kofi Annan? Should the U.S. support reliable South Korea, rising India or a troubled Middle East?"

And here's my post in response:

The question of whether the US should support South Korea, India, or Jordan is poorly framed. What matters is that the next Secretary General is able to command moral authority while working effectively with the great powers of the Security Council, including but not limited to the United States.    From that perspective, it's seemed obvious for a long time that Shashi Tharoor is by far the best candidate.   The South Korean candidate seems solid enough, but has nowhere near the global presence which a Sec Gen will need.  Jordan's Prince is too young, and wouldn't do much for America or the UN with the Arab or Islamic worlds given the very low esteem in which the Hashemite monarchy is generally held there (as opposed to Washington). Tharoor has both the demonstrated intellectual chops, the global presence, and the experience at the UN that the next Sec Gen is going to need.  The US really shouldn't be trying to force an "American" candidate on the UN, it should be interested in getting the best and most effective person for a tough job - someone who can stand up to the US when he needs to but can effectively work with the US to accomplish shared objectives.  Tharoor seems like an obvious choice.

**
Couple of other quick comments which I didn't include in the PostGlobal response:

Al-Arabiya is currently running with a report in the Jordanian daily al-Arab al-Yom that Qatar is lobbying the straw vote to get people to vote against Prince Zayd.   Supposedly, Qatar is pushing for the South Korean candidate instead.  The only value in the report is as one more instance of the endlessly tiresome Saudi-Qatari rivalry. 

The other amusing bit is in Daoud Kuttab's contribution to PostGlobal.  Kuttab offers a rather desultory endorsement of the Jordanian candidate on the grounds that nominating an Arab would somehow help the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.  But revealingly, Kuttab says "Unfortunately, I have never heard the Jordanian representative but I am aware of what he represents."  So a leading Palestinian journalist has never heard of the Jordanian candidate... kind of tells you what an impact his nomination would make at the Arab and Muslim level, no?

Comments

[isaac rosenberg]

Abuaardvark

Your apercu about Al Arabiya coverage of Qatar lobbying against Prince Zeid may be about Saudi-Qatar rivalry, but it misses the bigger point. Qatar's 1DPM/FM Shaikh Hamad Jassim Jabor Al Thani is doing Saudi Arabia a favour, and may have instructed his UN Ambassador Nassir Al-Nasser to openly canvas against Prince Zeid to prove to the Saudis he's working in their favour. The fact is there's little lost between Jordan and Saudi Arabia. And this is a clear example where it works in the favour of both Saudi and Qatar to shut down the Jordanians from raising their international profile. From the Saudi perspective, the Hashemites are ideological rivals. Why let a Hashemite become 'secular caliph'. I wouldn't go so far as to talk about a anti-Hashemite Wahabbi compact between Saudi and Qatar. More likely, wily Shaikh Hamad Jassim is playing his usual balancing games with the Saudis, and protecting his business and political flanks.

[David Ignatius]

Tharoor would be a fine candidate, but the word at the UN is that he ain't going to get the job. Kofi's last swing through the Middle East demonstrated how important this job is--especially over the next 2 years, when a damaged Bush administration will need a strong secretary-general more than it probably realizes.

[moloch-agonistes]

It's not really about the candidate. Before the sudden death of World Health Organization Director General J.W. Lee last year the reliable word on the street was that he had an inside track on the job. Sounds to me like a South Korean carve-out, presumably in part because of the looming confrontation with the North.

Most U.N. positions are filled this way: when it's not an implicit sinecure, it's a more or less formal one. Ann Veneman at UNICEF for example (and Carol Bellamy before her). Maybe this is not a good practice, you say, given the challenges we face internationally. You would, of course, be right. But these are part of the U.N.'s tacit terms of reference.

[davesgonechina]

Abu,

Did you notice the New York Times had an article interviewing a spoke in Al Qaeda's media wheel from Amman two days ago?

Al Qaeda Increasingly Reliant on Media

Abu Omar, 28, is part of an increasingly sophisticated network of contributors and discussion leaders helping to wage Al Qaeda’s battle for Muslim hearts and minds. A self-described Qaeda sympathizer who defends the Sept. 11 attacks and continues to find inspiration in Osama bin Laden’s call for jihad, Abu Omar is part of a growing army of young men who may not seek to take violent action, but who help spread jihadist philosophy, shape its message and hope to inspire others to their cause...

For example, this past Sept. 11, Abu Omar said, a link sent to a jihadist e-mail list took him to a general interest Islamic Web site, which led him to a password-protected Web site, then onto yet another site containing the latest release from Al Qaeda: a lecture by its No. 2 man, Ayman al-Zawahri, threatening attacks on Israel and the Persian Gulf. Abu Omar said he then passed the video to friends and confidants, acting as a local distributor to other sympathizers...

He goes to an Internet cafe several times a week. In recent years, Jordan’s Internet cafes have begun taking increased security measures, like registering users’ identification cards, he said, but jihadists in Amman alternate among a network of sympathetic cafe owners who allow them to surf anonymously.

Dude, I kept reading waiting to see a quote from you. What happened? This "Hassan M. Fattah" is stealing your act!