The election process for the next United Nations secretary-general is now underway. By the end of this year, a new leader will assume office at one of the most consequential junctures in the institution’s history. The global landscape is undeniably turbulent: geopolitical shifts, proliferating conflict, persistent poverty and climate risk, and strained public trust in multilateral institutions.
Still, it’s worth focusing on what multilateralism has delivered over the last century: A world that is more connected, more interoperable, and more capable than at any other point in human history. Global development gains, international health coordination, aviation and maritime safety standards, and digital interoperability, to name a few, are all rooted in international agreements. They are the invisible infrastructure of modern life and taken for granted.
The United Nations system has been central to this architecture of cooperation. The challenge now is not to defend its past, but to design its future.