Midway through his five-year term, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says he isn't concerned that he's not a household name.
What matters, he says, is making the United Nations "a more trusted, efficient, and effective organization" that can help the world's needy, protect civilians trapped in conflict, and keep key issues like climate change in the global spotlight.
Critics say Ban has worked too much behind the scenes, not using the bully pulpit of the U.N. as his charismatic predecessor Kofi Annan did to publicly pressure wayward regimes. They criticize him as ineffectual and colorless, and say he's capitulated to the five veto-wielding permanent members of the U.N. Security Council — the U.S., Russia, China, Britain and France — whose support is essential for him to get a second five-year term.
In a recent interview looking back on the first half of his term and ahead to the second half which started this month, Ban defended himself, arguing that he is battling against the ingrained culture of a massive bureaucracy. He said he's still working on his priority goals — mobilizing world leaders and people around the world to support a new treaty to tackle global warming, changing the working culture of the United Nations, and promoting peace in Darfur and other conflict areas, mainly in Africa.
"It's too early to claim any success," he said. "Likewise, it's too early to say what the most frustrating aspect in my job is."
The 65-year-old former South Korean foreign minister is widely viewed as the world's top diplomat, but he is also responsible for running a giant international bureaucracy where the U.N.'s 192 member countries often have competing interests.
"You don't see any other nation or government or even private organizations where you have equally important 192 shareholders," Ban said. "How to balance all these different 192 countries, that is quite time consuming."
