Despair at UN over selection of 'faceless' Ban Ki-moon as general secretary

The Bush administration's attacks on the UN continues yesterday with the news that Kofi Annan will be succeeded as Secretary General by Ban Ki-moon, the South Korean foreign minister.

Although France and Britain voted for Ki-moon it is being reported that they are doing so reluctantly, under pressure from the US. It is said that the US, still smarting from Kofi Annan's comments regarding the illegality of the Iraq war, wanted to push for the weakest candidate.

"The mood among staff is glum," one of the officials said. "We are not very excited about the outcome." With morale low at the UN after five years dominated by divisions, deadlock and corruption, they are sceptical about Mr Ban's ability to turn the organisation round or provide the strong, inspirational leadership they had been hoping for. Another official, who has met Mr Ban several times, said: "He is pretty faceless and does not have much charisma. Kofi, for all his problems, is a man of considerable dignity, political insight and wide international experience." Officials, who requested anonymity on the grounds that they would be working for Mr Ban, portray him as more secretary than general, happier with the minutiae of administrative detail than broad strategy, and a man given to platitudes.

Mr Ki-moon is said not to even have a programme for his first five years in charge of the UN. However, some see the appointment of a bureaucrat as inevitable after Kofi's tenure:

But Yasuhiko Yoshida, a Korea specialist at Saitama University in Japan, does not see weakness as necessarily a drawback: "Ban lacks the toughness needed to reform the UN. But that is why he has been chosen ... a weak man is an appropriate choice. The best role that Ban can play is not a leader, but a good coordinator and harmoniser of views."

He described Mr Ban as "intelligent, polite, moderate and honest. In the past three years he has proved himself a very astute and sophisticated diplomat."

Paul Kennedy, professor of international history at Yale and the author of a recent book on the UN, said it was to some extent inevitable that the next secretary general would be a blank sheet, if only because the selection system is geared that way.

"It is one of the golden rules that the UN doesn't want someone who is controversial and who, in carrying through policies, has offended or got the back up of other countries. People may snort in indignation about faceless bureaucrats, but it was almost certain that the process would throw up someone who was not a household name."

Prof Kennedy believes Mr Ban has the benefit in his new job of enjoying the backing of both the US, with its tendency to push for intervention, and China, which is reluctant to interfere in the internal affairs of member states. "If anyone is going to try to bridge the gap between them then it would be somebody like this guy whom they both trust partly because he is not dramatic."

Time will tell as to how Mr Ki-moon gets on, but Kofi Annan will be a tough act to follow.