Make the U.N. Great Again: The Uphill Struggle Facing The Next Secretary General

Aug 22, 2026 10:00 AM UTCPhoto-Illustration by TIME (Source Images: Angela Weiss—AFP/Getty Images; Charly Triballeau—AFP/Getty ImagesRichard Gowan is the Director of Global Issues and Institutions at the International Crisis Group.Daniel Forti is the Head of UN Affairs at the International Crisis Group. Aug 22, 2026 10:00 AM UTCIt may be both the most prestigious and the most frustrating job in international diplomacy: members of the United Nations are weighing who should succeed António Guterres as Secretary-General when he completes his final term in December. The timing couldn’t be more critical, with U.N.’s fortunes at a historically low ebb, for reasons both political and financial. Indeed, U.N. insiders question why anyone would even want the job at such a testing—and turbulent—moment. Some predict that, with major powers repeatedly blocking the U.N. from intervening in crises from Ukraine to Myanmar, and with the U.S. rolling back funding, whoever succeeds Guterres will simply have to continue to do “less with less” and manage a process of institutional decline as gracefully as possible. Others still hold out hope that a new U.N. leader could reverse the slide, and persuade ...