The UN Secretary-General and the Security Council A Dynamic Relationship

The United Nations Secretary-General and the United Nations Security Council spend significant amounts of time on their relationship with each other. They rely on each other for such important activities as peacekeeping, international mediation, and the formulation and application of normative standards in defense of international peace and security - in other words the executive aspects of the UN's work.

The UN Secretary-General and the Security Council fills an important lacuna in the scholarship on the UN system. Although there exists today an impressive body of literature on the development and significance of the Secretariat and the Security Council as separate organs, an important gap remains in our understanding of the interactions between them. Bringing together some of the most prominent authorities on the subject, this volume is the first book-length treatment of this topic. It studies the UN from an innovative angle, creating new insights on the (autonomous) policy-making of international organizations, and adds to our understanding of the dynamics of intra-organizational relationships.

Within the book, the contributors examine how each Secretary-General interacted with the Security Council, touching upon such issues as the role of personality, the formal and informal infrastructure of the relationship, the selection and appointment processes, as well as the Secretary-General's threefold role as a crisis manager, administrative manager, and manager of ideas.

Manuel Frohlich, Chair of International Relations and Foreign Policy, Trier University,Abiodun Williams, Former President, The Hague Institute for Global Justice

Manuel Frohlich holds the Chair of International Relations and Foreign Policy at Trier University. He has published several books and articles on a range of issues from the United Nations and global governance to the political philosophy of international relations and the role of individuals in world politics as well as the transformation of sovereignty, the responsibility to protect, and peacekeeping. Frohlich is an elected board member of the German Society for Political Science and co-editor of the German Journal of Political Science ( Zeitschrift fur Politikwissenschaft). Prof. Frohlich is a fellow of the NRW School of Governance, John W. Holmes Memorial Lecturer of the Academic Council on the United Nations System, recipient of the presidential teaching award of Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena and member of the program committee of the Edelstam Institute.


Abiodun Williams served as the Founding President of The Hague Institute for Global Justice from 2013 to 2016. From 2008 to 2012 he served at the United States Institute of Peace first as Vice President of the Center for Conflict Analysis and Prevention, and later as Senior Vice President of the Center for Conflict Management. From 2001 to 2007 Dr. Williams was Director of Strategic Planning for United Nations Secretaries-General Ban Ki-Moon and Kofi Annan in New York. He held faculty appointments at Georgetown, Rochester, and Tufts universities. Dr. Williams is the past Chair of the Academic Council on the UN System (ACUNS). He has published widely on conflict prevention and management.

Introduction, Manuel Frohlich and Abiodun Williams
1. Trygve Lie, 1946-1953, Ellen Jenny Ravndal
2. Dag Hammarskjold, 1953-1961, Manuel Frohlich
3. U Thant, 1961-1971, Bernard J. Firestone
4. Kurt Waldheim, 1972-1981, Kent J. Kille
5. Javier Perez de Cuellar, 1982-1991, Alvaro de Soto
6. Boutros Boutros-Ghali, 1992-1996, Adekeye Adebajo
7. Kofi Annan, 1997-2006, Abiodun Williams
8. Ban Ki-moon, 2007-2016, Richard Gowan
9. Conclusion, Manuel Frohlich and Abiodun Williams
Annex 1: Note on the election and distribution of the non-permanent members of the Security Council, Tom Buitelaar and Sam Daws
Annex 2: List of Security Council membership and representatives 1946-2016