Uploaded May 2026 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
During the Cuban missile crisis in 1962, United Nations Secretary-General U Thant had three things on his side: personal diplomacy, the UN’s neutrality, and a few precious days to negotiate.
Today, the risk from war is once again at a dangerous level. And on this episode of World’s Toughest Job, we ask what leverage the next secretary-general will have when a threat simmers for months or years and then explodes—not in 13 days, but in 13 hours. Can they still act as a firebreak when the old safety nets are gone? Or is it truly an impossible job?
Jasmin Baoumy and Mark Malloch-Brown are joined by Lynn Kuok, the Lee Kuan Yew chair at Brookings Institution; Ankit Panda, nuclear weapons expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace; and Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, president of the International Peace Institute.
World’s Toughest Job is a co-production of Foreign Policy and the @unfoundation.
Explore ideas, essentials, and commentary on the future of global cooperation and the UN secretary-general race at regroupplaybook.org
Follow and listen to more episodes of World’s Toughest Job: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/worlds-toughest-job/id1894846765
Subscribe to all of Foreign Policy’s Podcasts at foreignpolicy.com/podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts
Subscribe to Foreign Policy's YouTube Channel: youtube.com/channel/UC1x_EgZtYkAzVavuONBrLZQ?sub_confirmation=1
Visit foreignpolicy.com to read the latest global news and analysis from FP.
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During the Cuban missile crisis in 1962, United Nations Secretary-General U Thant had three things on his side: personal diplomacy, the UN’s neutrality, and a few precious days to negotiate.
Today, the risk from war is once again at a dangerous level. And on this episode of World’s Toughest Job, we ask what leverage the next secretary-general will have when a threat simmers for months or years and then explodes—not in 13 days, but in 13 hours. Can they still act as a firebreak when the old safety nets are gone? Or is it truly an impossible job?
Jasmin Baoumy and Mark Malloch-Brown are joined by Lynn Kuok, the Lee Kuan Yew chair at Brookings Institution; Ankit Panda, nuclear weapons expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace; and Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, president of the International Peace Institute.
World’s Toughest Job is a co-production of Foreign Policy and the @unfoundation.
Explore ideas, essentials, and commentary on the future of global cooperation and the UN secretary-general race at regroupplaybook.org
Follow and listen to more episodes of World’s Toughest Job: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/worlds-toughest-job/id1894846765
Subscribe to all of Foreign Policy’s Podcasts at foreignpolicy.com/podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts
Subscribe to Foreign Policy's YouTube Channel: youtube.com/channel/UC1x_EgZtYkAzVavuONBrLZQ?sub_confirmation=1
Visit foreignpolicy.com to read the latest global news and analysis from FP.
Follow Foreign Policy:
X - twitter.com/ForeignPolicy
Instagram - instagram.com/foreignpolicymag
Facebook - facebook.com/foreign.policy.magazine
LinkedIn - linkedin.com/company/foreign-policy-magazine
TikTok - tiktok.com/@foreignpolicymagazine
