INTERNATIONAL INTRIGUE
Guess Who Wants to Run the UN
The race for UN Secretary-General is on. Bring snacks.
what it is.
A daily briefing from International Intrigue covering the lineup of candidates angling to replace António Guterres as UN Secretary-General when his term ends in January 2027. The front-runners as of right now: Rafael Grossi (IAEA's nuclear watchdog chief, Argentina), Michelle Bachelet (former Chilean president, former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights), Rebeca Grynspan (UN economist, Costa Rica), and Macky Sall (former Senegalese president). Intrigue covers this stuff in their signature 5-minute briefing style, which means you get the candidates, the regional rotation politics, and a few jokes.
why i liked it.
Because the UN Secretary-General race is one of those things that's quietly going to matter for years, and almost nobody is following it. The regional rotation question alone (Latin America's "turn" again? First woman ever?) is geopolitically interesting in a way that doesn't make the news cycle. Intrigue covers it with enough context that you can actually follow along even if you didn't know Guterres was leaving. Which, until I read this, I didn't.
what to take from it.
The race for SG is happening right now and it could produce the first woman ever to hold the role. Track Bachelet and Grynspan. Also: who runs the UN matters more than the news cycle suggests, especially in an era where multilateralism keeps getting declared dead and then somehow keeps not being. Save Intrigue for the daily 5-min hit when you don't have time for a longer read.
— xx, m