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This is one of the first Secretaries General who has essentially lived as a child with
the issues that the UN is most concerned. He experienced war, and he was displaced.
And I think that you see that in a lot of what he does. He cares deeply about the UN's
mission and about the charter, and we feel that every day in our working with him.
Before looking at his second term, and the issues that he might want to draw most attention
to, I think there's a couple of things worth bearing in mind about his role. The role of
the Secretary General is a balancing act between so many competing agendas and interests. It
is, in fact, not one job. It's probably ten, if you were to break it down into its constituent
parts: managing a huge UN system, doing the bidding of 193 Member States. He is an advocate
for the principles, the charter, human rights and international humanitarian law; but he
is also somebody who has to balance that advocacy role with access on the ground for humanitarian
assistance and political entry points to try to move political situations. He, himself,
embodies a massive number of interests and agendas in one person.
The world is changing in ways that we have yet to fully recognize. Power is shifting,
definitely, away from the traditional, Western countries and toward some of the Middle Powers,
as they're called; but also away from states completely, and toward coalitions and networks
of people who can come together in search of solutions for countries. We need more actors,
frankly; a more diverse set of actors and a greater number of actors to solve most global
problems.