The Secretary-General’s Inbox

Eight core missions for the United Nations

As the international system struggles to generate solutions with the scale and ingenuity required to control soaring geopolitical risk, a new Secretary-General will need to take office with clear-eyed priorities for where the UN can uniquely deliver value to Member States and ordinary people.

Here are eight mission-critical areas they will find in their inbox.

1. Peace and Security

With war and violence rising, the UN must restore its vigor for peacemaking as a core purpose. A new Secretary-General will need to take diplomatic risks, engage in courageous diplomacy when the UN Security Council is stuck, and make full use of tools for dispute resolution, good offices, and political creativity. This should be twinned with bold efforts to streamline and refocus the UN’s humanitarian role.

The Secretary-General can also tap a General Assembly that is increasingly ready to exert its authorities when the Security Council is at an impasse. The risk of renewed proliferation — both nuclear and beyond — must also be high on the agenda.

2. Development and Shared Prosperity

Continuing the trend begun under the Guterres administration, the UN should focus its development efforts on catalytic support to countries, stepping aside where other actors (governments, business, or civil society) are better positioned. The UN can also champion economic opportunities for the young countries and young people who need them most.

A new Secretary-General will need to set out a vision to breathe life into the Sustainable Development Goals ahead of the SDG Summit in 2027 and for their succession as the 2030 deadline draws near.

3. The Global Economy

A fracturing economic order defined by protectionism, debt crises, and variable geometry needs new navigational tools. While the UN cannot match the firepower of the international financial institutions or the G20, the next Secretary-General can demonstrate the UN’s added value as the only forum with the legitimacy needed to promote a more resilient and equitable model of globalization.

The UN has the power to promote standards that safeguard the global majority, tackle structural impediments to development, and shield smaller countries from unchecked geoeconomic competition.

4. Climate, Nature, and Global Public Goods

No entity other than the UN can credibly act as custodian of our planetary life-support systems — from a stable climate and healthy oceans to global pandemic preparedness. A new Secretary-General will need to forge new coalitions capable of turning these lofty ideals into real-world strategies.

Protecting the global commons requires expanded capacity, sharper coordination, and moon-shot instincts — especially as multilateral frameworks for climate, health security, and biodiversity receive pushback.

5. Complex Crises

The 21st century is increasingly vulnerable to cascading emergencies. The global trauma of the COVID-19 pandemic has been rapidly followed by compounding food and energy shocks triggered by wars in Ukraine and the Middle East.

In a hyperconnected world, we need to prepare for more systemic, interconnected, and multidimensional shocks, whatever their trigger. This was the logic behind the proposal of the current Secretary-General for a new type of emergency platform. As new systemic shocks strike, the UN will still be the only entity with the range, reach, and agility for rapid action at scale.

6. Critical Global Infrastructure

While crisis response is vital, we must also be more proactive in addressing the systemic vulnerabilities of globalization itself. Recent disruptions at major maritime chokepoints and escalating cyber threats have exposed the fragility of the physical and digital networks on which all nations depend.

From trade routes and undersea cables to financial flows, energy grids, and food corridors, new leadership is needed from the UN to protect the “operating system” of the global economy from geopolitical disruption.

7. Artificial Intelligence and Frontier Technologies

The promise of AI and other frontier technologies must be amplified, while guardrails are developed against their greatest risks. As the one forum where all countries and sectors can have a voice, the UN has a unique role and responsibility in this crowded and contested space.

It can serve as a platform for sharing knowledge and strategies, as well as a trusted partner for the creation of new models and mechanisms to navigate risks. This will require a sea change in the UN’s ability to work with the private sector, yielding benefits in other frontier domains such as biosecurity, neurotechnology, and quantum computing.

8. Moral and Normative Leadership

The UN must reclaim the moral and normative leadership the world needs, while reviving the bias to action and diplomatic creativity that characterized its early years.

By cutting through the noise of a polarized world to champion fundamental principles, the next Secretary-General can provide a North Star for human dignity and rights.

Across these and other missions, the next Secretary-General should signal a sea change in how the UN mobilizes the best talent, from inside the UN system and beyond.

The UN should not seek to execute its missions alone. Instead, the Secretary-General can be a convener and conductor of high-ambition coalitions of state and non-state actors, brokering trust where it does not exist and using shared goals to drive delivery.

This draws on Getting Real about ‘Back to Basics’ — A UN Reset for Turbulent Times, originally published by Elizabeth Cousens and Sigrid Kaag on LinkedIn.