Race for next UN chief heats up with first round of interviews

UNITED NATIONS - The race to become the next leader of the United Nations moved into a higher gear with the four declared candidates facing hours of questions over two days. Top among them: Can the U.N. be made effective again?

Rafael Mariano Grossi, an Argentine diplomat who heads the International Atomic Energy Agency, struck a downbeat note about the global body's future during his interview to replace Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

"This election, or selection, process is so consequential, and this is because we are at a time when there are enormous, huge doubts about our institution," Grossi said on Tuesday. "The direction in which the U.N. is moving is not the one we would all like to see."

Michelle Bachelet, the former president of Chile, had her own gloomy assessment, saying, "our world and the order based on international law that sustains it is under strain as never before." The other two candidates, senior U.N. official Rebeca Grynspan and former Senegal President Macky Sall were similarly pessimistic, with Grynspan saying trust in the organization "is waning and ... time is running out to restore it."

The candidates' comments offered an apt reflection of the state of affairs at the organization in the 10 years of Guterres's tenure. Nominally meant to ensure global peace and security, its leaders have watched from the sidelines as wars raged in Ukraine, Gaza and Iran.

Even when crises like the war in Gaza or the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz get discussed at the Security Council, the body's permanent members - especially the U.S., China and Russia - often can't agree, leaving resolutions regularly vetoed.

"The U.N. is a reflection of the world that it came to support, and we're in a much more trying time than we were in the past few decades," says Daniel Forti, who heads U.N. affairs at the International Crisis Group. "It's clear that being secretary-general is just a much tougher job than it was a decade ago because of the geopolitics of the world."

New prospects may emerge at any time until someone gets at least 9 out of 15 votes at the Security Council, with no opposition from any of its five veto-empowered members. There's no official deadline for when the next leader has to be chosen, but Guterres's term ends on Dec. 31. Over the summer, the Security Council will start informal consultations and proceed to secret "straw polls."

Another major factor in the selection will be President Donald Trump. He has repeatedly lambasted the organization, lamenting that it hasn't fulfilled its potential and even floating his Board of Peace as a possible rival to the world body. In January, the administration announced it would withdraw from 31 U.N. entities. He's also withheld around $2 billion in dues that the U.S. still owes.

On top of these challenges, the U.N. warned that it could run out of money this summer, largely because of the lack of American funding. The next secretary-general would have to confront all of those problems as part of efforts to revive the organization.

"Secretaries general, when they're successful, are successful because they understand the historical moment they're in, and move the U.N. in a direction where it becomes newly relevant," said historian Thant Myint-U, whose grandfather was Secretary-General U Thant.

Momentum has also slowed on the possible choice of the first female secretary-general. A resolution from September encouraged members to "strongly consider" women when it came to choosing candidates for the role.

The Trump administration made a point that it would choose the most qualified person, regardless of gender, but some Republican lawmakers have already urged the U.S. to veto Chile's Bachelet over her views on abortion and China.

"I'm very pessimistic that a woman will be selected this time," said Stephen Schlesinger, a fellow with the Century Foundation, pointing out that significantly more women ran in 2016 and still lost.

The last 10 years under Guterres, a former prime minister of Portugal, also highlighted the strain that comes with the position. He is often accused of focusing too much on climate change and not enough on security. Lately, the secretary-general has faced discontent over efforts to curb spending, which led to cuts of thousands of jobs.

"I would concede that Guterres did have a poor hand that he was dealt," Schlesinger said.

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This story was originally published April 22, 2026 at 10:13 PM.