Former United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has challenged the UN Security Council to overcome rivalry and distrust, urging members to reform the veto system and support leaders capable of steering the world away from catastrophe toward active cooperation.
Ban made the call during an open debate on “Leadership for Peace,” where he and academic Anjali Dayal pressed Council members to confront both mounting global crises and internal constraints undermining the UN’s effectiveness.
He warned that without reform and renewed political will, the organisation risks irrelevance. “The path of each for themselves is no different from the path of mutual destruction,” Ban told the Council.
Now an emeritus member of The Elders, Ban said global conditions have deteriorated since he left office in 2016, marked by deepening rivalry among major powers, erosion of multilateralism and conflicts in which civilians continue to bear the brunt.
“This deeply disappointing situation is characterised by confrontation rather than cooperation among major powers,” he said, citing the war in Ukraine, mass civilian casualties in Gaza and weakening international collaboration amid an accelerating climate crisis.
Ban linked the global turmoil directly to the Council’s dysfunction, describing its repeated failure to act as “the most egregious cause,” particularly the use of veto powers by permanent members to shield themselves and their allies from accountability.
Without meaningful reform, he warned, civilians would remain unprotected and impunity would persist. “Without it, the UN risks lurching towards either collapse or irrelevance,” he said.
On the selection of the next Secretary-General, Ban called for a single, non-renewable seven-year term to strengthen the independence of the office, arguing that the current two five-year term convention makes Secretaries-General overly dependent on permanent members for reappointment.
“The General Assembly holds the power to set the terms of the appointment itself,” he said, urging member states to exercise that authority.
Secretary-General António Guterres’s second term expires at the end of next year, with the formal selection process already under way. In November, the Presidents of the General Assembly and the Security Council jointly launched the process in line with General Assembly resolution 79/327, which emphasises transparency and inclusivity.
Under the process, candidates must be nominated by member states or groups and submit vision statements, curricula vitae and campaign finance disclosures, followed by publicly broadcast interactive dialogues.
As of mid-December, only Rafael Mariano Grossi, Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), has been formally nominated by Argentina.
Anjali Dayal, Associate Professor of International Politics at Fordham University, told the Council that the next Secretary-General would assume office amid unprecedented strain, including a deepening funding crisis already reducing the UN’s capacity to deliver essential services.
“That will result not just in shrinking this organisation, but also in less of the work that only the UN can do at scale,” she said, citing reduced vaccinations, humanitarian aid and mine-clearance efforts.
Dayal noted that history shows the Council has previously selected leaders capable of advancing peace despite deep divisions, pointing to the tenures of Javier Pérez de Cuéllar and U Thant.
She said the Secretary-General’s influence lies not in material power but in the ability to shape ideas, narratives and cooperation — “to make conference rooms always more attractive than the battlefield.”