On June 18th, Antonio Guterres was re-appointed United Nations Secretary General for a second and final five year term. Prior to serving as Secretary General since 2017, Guterres was the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and also a long serving Prime Minister of Portugal. Guterres was re-nominated by the Security Council and formally elected by the General Assembly without facing any significant challengers.
Given the re-appointment of Guterres I thought this would be a good time to both look back at the highlights and lowlights of his first term and sketch out some of the key challenges and opportunities that will present themselves over the next five years. And on the line with me to discuss all this and more is Richard Gowan, the UN Director of the International Crisis Group and a frequent guest of this podcast.
We kick off with a discussion of some of Guterres successes and failures since 2017 before having a forward looking conversation about what lies ahead for the Secretary General as he begins his second term.
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