Ban Ki-Moon’s Leadership Team and Agenda

New UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon has started making new appointments and agenda setting at the United Nations. The NY Times reports that

Vijay Nambiar of India, a special adviser to Mr. Ban’s predecessor, Kofi Annan, will be his chief of staff, and Michèle Montas, an award-winning Haitian broadcaster, will head the spokesman’s division, replacing Stéphane Dujarric of France, a United Nations statement said.

United Nations sources said they expected that Alicia Bárcena of Mexico would be appointed under secretary general for administration and management, though no announcement had been made. The post had been held by the United States, which is seeking to lead the political affairs or peacekeeping units.

The Times also reports that there is talk of splitting the peacekeeping post in two and having one representative from the U.S. and one from Britain fill each of th slots. Some have criticized that this would not be operationally feasible.

By the way, Michèle Montas’ name may ring a bell for some as she is the widow of Jean Dominique, the Haitian journalist who was murdered in 2000 and was the subject of the Jonathan Demme documentary “The Agronomist.”

In a separate article, the Times assessed the state of reform efforts at the UN:

Many of Ban’s public comments have dealt with U.N. management issues. He has pledged generally to press ahead with efforts to reform the bureaucracy to make it more effective and responsive to the 192 U.N. member nation.

But developing nations are expected to stymie him as they did Annan since the General Assembly controls the budget and many management posts, seeing the reforms as a Western plot to deprive them of jobs.