New Secretary-General Needs to Reform UN, an Organization in Crisis, Experts Say

‘The only real hope for the U.N. would be for an outsider to come in and reform it,’ one expert said.

The U.N. logo adorns a window at U.N. headquarters in New York City, on Sept. 18, 2025. Jeenah Moon/Reuters

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres’s second five-year term will run out later this year, and a replacement will be chosen in June.

Despite a campaign for the United Nations to get its first female secretary-general, it appears as if the favored—and only—candidate so far is Rafael Mariano Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency.