Podcasts

Back

Who Will Lead the UN Next? Transparency, Gender, and Geopolitics

17
April 2026
By Gabriela Keseberg Davalos & Chaima Jabbar

The 2026 UN Secretary-General election takes place amid rising conflicts, geopolitical fragmentation, and declining trust in multilateral institutions. These converging crises increase the stakes of leadership at the UN. The process is further shaped by regional dynamics, with Latin America seen as a strong contender, though shifting geopolitical interests—especially from major powers—are complicating the selection.

RELATED CONTENT

  • September 24, 2025
    Il y a presque deux ans, le Burkina Faso, le Mali et le Niger ont quitté la CEDEAO (Communauté économique des États de l’Afrique de l’Ouest) - Organisation régionale regroupant quinze pays- pour créer un nouveau groupement d’intégration: l’Alliance des États du Sahel (AES).  Les motivations des trois pays ne sont pas conjoncturelles. Elles reflètent les difficultés de l’Organisation régionale à accompagner les pays en question dans leur quête de sécurité et de développemen ...
  • Authors
    Bruno Saraiva
    July 21, 2025
    This article assesses the economic performance of the original BRICS economies, relative to the growth and currency appreciation projections presented in the papers that introduced the acronym, prior to the grouping becoming a diplomatic, political, and economic reality. It also discusses the BRICS agenda in the current challenging geopolitical context, in which economic fragmentation tends to raise costs for the global economy and presents considerable obstacles for emerging and de ...
  • Authors
    Pepe Zhang
    Fernando Straface
    June 13, 2025
    This Paper was originally published on cebri.org Within an ever-evolving system of multilateral development banks (MDB) currently reshaped by four structural geo-economic trends, the emergence of new MDBs like the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) and the New Development Bank (NDB) carries great geopolitical significance. Yet the new MDBs, attuned to institutional and operational realities, have not upended the MDB system. Their relationship with long-e ...
  • Authors
    January 21, 2025
    According to the 2024 Secretary-General Report on Sahara (2024 Report), the biggest challenge may be the absence of progress in reaching a political solution to the Sahara Issue. Why has this conflict continued for half a century? In the 2024 Report, the Secretary-General has not attempted to give a stinging report on the resolution failure. The outline of the 2024 Report is largely as usual. Generally, to resolve a conflict, the proper parties should first be exactly identified. O ...
  • Authors
    December 24, 2024
    Over the past 50 years, international law relevant to the Sahara Issue has evolved significantly. Yet, even recent developments, such as a decision by the EU court and a proposal by the Secretary-General’s Personal Envoy to partition the Saharan provinces, have not adequately accounted for these advancements. Actions by a state that may not have been scrutinized in 1975 could now face condemnation under contemporary legal standards. Notably, the right to self-determination must not ...
  • Authors
    August 31, 2023
    Kim Ju-ae, supposed daughter of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, was introduced by her father for the first time to the world and 26.1 million citizens of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) on November 19, 2022. Her first public appearance was unusual: at the launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) costing up to $10 million (Los Angeles Times, November 4, 2022). Unlike a DPRK spy satellite launched on May 30, 2023, which broke up in midair before reach ...
  • Authors
    August 4, 2023
    Twenty-Four Hours June 23-24, 2023. Over those days, Russia, the sanctioned world power, was not destabilized by the nuclear enemy in Washington, but by one man, who made his wealth serving food to school children and soldiers. A caterer who attempted a revolution. A bald man, who apparently wore wigs during his days off, as the Russian secret police claimed to have discovered when they searched his home in St Petersburg. The photos of the wig-wearing Yevgeny Prigozhin were shown o ...