Richard Ponzio, Project Director, Commission on Global Security, Justice and Governance, The Stimson Center and Michael Schroeder, Professorial Lecturer, American University
How can a UN Secretary-General effectively lead change? Studies of leadership emphasize a transformational vision and a far-reaching reform agenda that either offers something for everyone or mobilizes support by helping governments see beyond their national interests. Yet the Secretaries-General that have taken this approach often produce lowest-common denominator reforms and trigger a backlash against the officeholder. Indeed, the office’s limited authority and resources, coupled with exigencies of major powers, constrain the kinds of reforms that can be enacted under her leadership. That said, strong and diplomatically creative Secretaries-General have brought about change by accepting the office’s limitations and adapting their change leadership accordingly, particularly by facilitating coalition formation among like-minded state and non-state actors. We review the record on SG-led reform initiatives and distill four important insights. First, the Secretary-General should avoid reform fatigue by clarifying the organization’s primary operational mission and organizing reform initiatives around this mission. Second, she should identify a set of targeted and limited reforms that cumulatively advance that operational mission and leave the initiation of sweeping, comprehensive reform proposal or a grand bargain to others. Third, some proposed reforms can be introduced in incremental rounds of reform, but others will require being patient and opportunistic, seizing windows of opportunity to establish new practices without triggering a political backlash. Finally, and perhaps most important, the Secretary-General must often let others lead and even encourage them to do so. In particular, the officeholder should piggyback on existing smart coalitions of NGOs, experts and likeminded states that are promoting new international norms or changes to the intergovernmental machinery that align with her envisioned operational mission. Where these smart coalitions do not exist, the Secretary-General can exercise her network, convening and agenda setting power to facilitate their formation.
