Although the United Nations is facing a financial and political crisis that is almost certain to get worse before it gets better, the field of candidates vying for the organization’s top job is surprisingly crowded. If history is any guide, power politics, more than anything else, will decide the outcome.
SANTIAGO—The world’s premier multilateral body, the United Nations, is facing a financial and political crisis. The United States is woefully in arrears, owing the organization some $4 billion, while China did not settle the remaining $428 million of its 2026 regular-budget assessment until September. Moreover, the UN’s budgetary system has historically been highly dysfunctional: until recently, the institution would,under certain circumstances, have to reimburse states for resources they had never contributed in the first place. No wonder the first UN secretary-general, Trygve Lie, reportedly described his role as the “most impossible job on this earth.”