Secretary or General?

Simon Chesterman is Global Professor and Director of the New York University School of Law Singapore Programme, and an Associate Professor of Law at the National University of Singapore Faculty of Law. From 2004 to 2006 he was Executive Director of NYU's Institute for International Law and Justice. Educated in Melbourne, Beijing, Amsterdam, and Oxford, Chesterman's teaching experience includes periods at the Universities of Melbourne, Oxford, Southampton, Columbia, and Sciences Po, as well as NYU. Prior to joining NYU, he was a Senior Associate at the International Peace Academy and Director of UN Relations at the International Crisis Group in New York. He has previously worked for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Belgrade and interned at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in Arusha. Chesterman's books include Shared Secrets: Intelligence and Collective Security (Lowy Institute for International Policy, 2006); You, The People: The United Nations, Transitional Administration, and State-Building (Oxford University Press, 2004); and Just War or Just Peace? Humanitarian Intervention and International Law (Oxford University Press, 2001), which was awarded the American Society of International Law Certificate of Merit. His edited volumes include Secretary or General? The UN Secretary-General in World Politics (Cambridge University Press, 2007) and Making States Work: State Failure and the Crisis of Governance (edited with Michael Ignatieff and Ramesh Thakur, United Nations University Press, 2005). He regularly contributes to international law and political science journals, as well as mass media publications such as the International Herald Tribune.

• Foreword Kofi A. Annan; Introduction Simon Chesterman; Part I. Defining and Refining the Job Description: 1. The evolution of the Secretary-General Brian E. Urquhart; 2. 'The most impossible job' description Shashi Tharoor; 3. Selecting the world's diplomat Colin Keating; Part II. Maintaining Peace and Security: 4. Relations with the Security Council James Cockayne and David M. Malone; 5. Good offices and 'groups of friends' Teresa Whitfield; 6. The bully pulpit Quang Trinh; Part III. Normative and Political Dilemmas: 7. The Secretary-General as norm entrepreneur Ian Johnstone; 8. Pope, pharaoh, or prophet? The Secretary-General after the Cold War Adekeye Adebajo; 9. Leader, clerk, or policy entrepreneur? The Secretary-General in a complex world David Kennedy; Part IV. Independence and the Future: 10. The Secretary-General's political space James Traub; 11. The Secretary-General in a unipolar world Edward C. Luck; 12. Resolving the contradictions of the office Simon Chesterman and Thomas M. Franck; Appendix.

'This is a timely book on an exceedingly important subject at the current juncture in world affairs: the role of the UN Secretary-General, the personification of 'the international community'. It offers significant insights from scholars and practitioners alike, and will be required reading for Kofi Annan's successor.' John G. Ruggie, Kirkpatrick Professor of International Affairs, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University