Diplomats at the United Nations will soon hold formal hearings with the current candidates for the organization’s next secretary-general. They will discuss topics ranging from climate change to human rights. But many participants will be listening most closely to what the would-be leaders have to say about the U.N.’s mandate to maintain international peace and security.

Both the U.N.’s current secretary-general, António Guterres, and its member states have downplayed peace and security in discussions about the organization’s future. They believed that, in a period of big-power competition, the U.N. was better positioned to help broker agreements on issues like climate change, artificial intelligence, and pandemic response.

Diplomats at the United Nations will soon hold formal hearings with the current candidates for the organization’s next secretary-general. They will discuss topics ranging from climate change to human rights. But many participants will be listening most closely to what the would-be leaders have to say about the U.N.’s mandate to maintain international peace and security.

Both the U.N.’s current secretary-general, António Guterres, and its member states have downplayed peace and security in discussions about the organization’s future. They believed that, in a period of big-power competition, the U.N. was better positioned to help broker agreements on issues like climate change, artificial intelligence, and pandemic response.

But this bet has proven to be a bust. Inevitably, the same pressures that have stymied multilateral conflict resolution efforts continue to make cooperation in other arenas harder. As a result, there is no alternative but for the U.N. to get back to basics. More than 80 years after it was founded, in the shadows of multiple wars from Iran to Sudan, the organization needs to once again show that it is serious about its founding mission of solving conflicts.

Four candidates have thrown their names into the ring for secretary-general so far: Rebeca Grynspan, Rafael Grossi, Michelle Bachelet, and Macky Sall. Others may........

© Foreign Policy