Who Will Be the Next UN Secretary General?

Something extraordinary took place at the United Nations this week. For twenty hours, over three days, each candidate in the race to become the next UN secretary general submitted themselves to hours of questioning by member states and civil society.

This was a radical departure from how things were done previously. For the past 70 years, the Secretary General was picked pretty much behind closed doors by the five veto wielding members of the Security Council. It was a totally un-transparent process, sometimes you did not even know who was in the running.

This time around, that is not quite how things are going down. For one, there are actually declared candidates--9 so far. And each of these candidates faced two hours of questioning by member states, forcing them to go on the record on some hot button global issues.

And it was all webcast! I watched nearly all of it.

I would be lying to you if I said that it was all riveting political theater. But for UN nerds like me and my guest Richar…