UN frontrunner plays it safe

By Mark Turner
September 27, 2006
Financial Times
Original Source: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/f88b801c-4e4f-11db-bcbc-0000779e2340.html
Ban Ki-moon, South Korea's foreign minister who is the frontrunner to become the next secretary-general of the United Nations, appears to have settled on a simple strategy in his campaign to win election later this year.
Ahead of Thursday's straw poll in the Security Council on the seven contenders for the top post, he has hit the right notes without offending any powerful countries, and promised reforms people want without specifying any of the tough decisions that would entail.
So what could the UN expect in his first hundred days? It is rather sensitive for me as one of the candidates to go into any specific personnel management issues, Mr Ban told the Financial Times in an interview that revealed a reluctance to move much beyond assurances of personal competence, and the need to rise to new challenges.
Mr Ban answered most questions with stump responses, but was vague about how he would actually heal the UN's deep rift between rich and poor countries, manage its feuding staff or go about resolving the world's most intractable crises.
On the other hand, he displayed a growing mastery of UN vocabulary. Phrases such as ownership, gender mainstreaming, equitable geographical distribution and, of course, the common good of the international community, peppered his replies. That said, the word genocide appeared to elude him – with regards to Darfur and Rwanda – although he did call for bolder measures to ensure events like the 1994 massacre in central Africa were not repeated.
On nuclear proliferation – an issue with which he has some personal experience – he noted that on certain cases, specific cases, I know that the secretary-general may have limitations. This is a fact of life, he said. Nevertheless, the secretary-general as a chief international diplomat of the world body should play an impartial, but very skilful and astute diplomatic facilitator and mediating role. 
Some UN insiders are asking if deals are being made to safeguard the current leadership's interests. Mr Ban declined to say whom he would appoint as deputy secretary-general. But he did say: I intend to delegate a significant amount of day-to-day management, while he as secretary-general would more visibly be involved in resolving conflicts.
His experience in reforming South Korea's foreign ministry may, as he claims, go some way to helping him do that. But the UN is another place altogether; and this softly spoken controversy-avoiding politician may be in for a shock