A Campaign By Shashi Tharoor

"The person who is tipped to become the next Secretary General of the United Nations," Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information Shashi Tharoor appeared on Sky News in England this evening. This represented unusual active campaigning for a position, where in the past those who were selected hardly campaigned. Under-Secretary-General has also created a website for his candidacy and has laid out a platform. The selection of Secretary-General (SG) was previously something for back-room wrangling of the powers within the Security Council, but now seems to be taking on an-American style campaign format with talking points and promotion of straw poll results.

The next SG is likely to come from Asia, due to the tradition of regional rotation and the current SG Kofi Annan coming from Africa. The last Asian SG was U Thant of Burma, who completed his second term in 1971. Thus, all of the current major candidates come from Asia, with officials from India, Korea, Thailand, supposedly leading the way.

To get nominated, a candidate must be approved by the Security Council, especially the permanent five (U.S., U.K., France, China, and Russia), who wield veto power. Thus, it will be interesting to see how the complex relationship between the home-countries of the leading candidates and the U.S. and China impacts the selection process. The U.S .has said it will back whoever emerges from the Asia caucus, but that does not mean it will not have influence, considering Kofi Annan was the U.S’s handpicked successor to Boutros-Boutros Ghali (who was effectively booted by the U.S.).

Sky News with Martin Stanford airs on weeknights between 8:00 PM and 10:00 PM in London. Presented by Martin Stanford, the show encourages viewers to contribute using webcams and 3G mobile phones to send in video messages, or join in debates regarding the issues of the day. Wikipedia offers a further biography for Martin Stanford. To read more about Sky News, read this Wikipedia entry. To read more on the news report, read this Sky News article.