South Korean Ban Ki-Moon arrived for his first day of work yesterday as the eighth secretary general of the United Nations, one of the most important political jobs in the world. South Korea did not join the UN until 1991 because of Cold War divisions. Coming from there he brings a reputation for hard work, steely determination and a new oriental style to the job. But he will need to become more general than secretary over the next five years, belying his reputation as a consensualist mediator, if he is to make a real difference.
Mr Ban supported a platform of UN reform, transparency and free market policies last summer when he campaigned among member states and the all-important permanent members of the Security Council. It was Asia's turn for the job and he is the second Asian to hold it, 35 years on from U Thant. This gave him a real start over other candidates, rapidly gaining support from the United States, China and Russia, more slowly from France and the United Kingdom. Since being elected last October Mr Ban has reinforced these points with regular references to current conflicts and crises in Darfur, Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, the Middle East and North Korea.
It is difficult indeed to become secretary general other than on an emulsive programme offending as few of the most powerful and influential member states as possible. Thus it is tricky to judge those chosen for this job ahead of their time in office. They must have reserves of political capacity and skill which may have had to be disguised during the campaign. The UN is badly in need of reform as to structure and process, not least in the direction of greater transparency. Too often it functions as an opaque, unaccountable bureaucracy dominated by regional groups preoccupied with protecting national sovereignty, rather than serving any universalist agenda.
Outgoing secretary general Kofi Annan clearly identified these shortcomings during his second term. He made real progress in defining ambitious development goals for the UN to meet by 2015. He had less success with his internal reform programme, meeting stiff resistance from vested national and organisational interests. This gives Mr Ban an opportunity to make changes in his first few months so as to facilitate the UN's handling of major crises as well as the more routine developmental and peacekeeping tasks with which most of its work is actually concerned. This will draw on his organisational expertise and should help build his reputation for effective internal leadership.
Mr Annan had strong communications skills, an important characteristic of international political leadership in today's world. Those will come to Mr Ban, it is to be hoped, as he tackles the UN's busy current political agenda. It would be good to see progress made especially in Darfur and in the Middle East region in coming months. Realistically, the UN is the sum of its national memberships; but on occasion it can and should be used to transcend them in the name of all mankind.