The UN must negotiate the turn to avoid shipwreck (By Oumar NDIAYE) October 23, 2026
The setback suffered by all seven candidates for the post of Secretary General of the United Nations (UN) during the sixth Straw poll (indicative vote), on November 16, seems to put this institution through unprecedented difficulties.
Even if it is true that this situation is not so different from that of 1996 with the appointment of Koffi Annan to replace the Egyptian Boutros Ghali, it contrasts with the appointment of the Portuguese Antonio Guterres in 2016. The former Prime Minister of Portugal had dominated all the indicative votes. The succession of Antonio Guterres, who will end his mandate next December, is thus relaunched with perhaps other candidates. However, the current shortlist was quite interesting, with candidates from Latin America and profiles who know the organization from the inside, or the former Senegalese president Macky Sall who can boast of four decades of experience in public life.
This disavowal thus relaunches the debate on the future of an organization which, for several years, has been going through a structural and existential crisis. As recalled in two previous columns, the first written five years ago, entitled “Under Biden, multilateralism will have to reinvent itself”, and the second last year, “The setbacks and the escape from multilateralism”, multilateralism despite everything has helped many countries, in all regions of the world, to fill gaps in the State and provide support and subsidies. But today, in their progress, certain multilateral organizations, especially the UN, are beginning to suffer the weight of age. Thus, the adventures which accompany the appointment of the next Secretary General of the United Nations, far from being a tragedy, symbolize the divisions and divergences which this institution has faced for several decades. Heir to the League of Nations (Sdn) born in 1918 from the smoking ashes of the First World War, the UN has adopted the same ideals and fundamentals of its predecessor.
Led by the American president, Woodrod Wilson, one of the names most cited in the theory of Idealism of International Relations, the League of Nations wanted to be an international organization focused on peace and international security. But the golden age of Idealism did not last too long because the world, as described by the thinkers of the theory of Realism, is marked by the balance of power between States and also a cold observation of the reality of International Relations. It is this postulate which governed the first years of the UN after its creation in 1945, with places occupied by the strong ones, the permanent members of the Security Council: the United States, China, Russia, France and Great Britain. But the post-World War II world has evolved a lot with a radical change in reality.
Long on the periphery of global governance, the countries of the “Global South” are today beginning to bring their weight to bear in the progress of the world. Whereas previously, with instruments of multilateralism such as the United Nations or the Breton Woods institutions, the world’s major decisions were taken in Washington or New York, or in their European annexes. Thus, due to their age, institutions like the United Nations, created on the embers of the Second World War, no longer embrace the aspirations and ambitions especially of the countries of the “Global South” which still feel the domination of the Western camp. It is in this context that the succession of Antonio Guterres is taking place, which is a key moment in the evolution of the UN. The Organization is thus at a real turning point. It must therefore negotiate this shift well to avoid a shipwreck, which will have serious consequences for multilateralism…
