Best Un Secretary General
So, lets ask, who has been the best United Nations Secretary-General? Dag Hammarskjold is often said to have been the best Secretary-General of the United Nations. From Sweden, Hammarskjold had an early career as a diplomat before becoming UN Secretary-General in 1953. With a figurative puff of white smoke, the United Nations Security Council finally selected a new Secretary-General a seasoned and soft-spoken diplomat from Peru, Javier Perez de Cuellar.
There have been nine secretary-generals of the United Nations (UNSG or just SG) since the appointment of the first position in February 1946. Trygve Liethe of Norway served as the first Secretary-General, and Antonio Guterres of Portgual serves as the current Secretary-General. Four candidates vying to lead the United Nations have spent hours being grilled about their views on issues from restoring global peace to ending escalating poverty.
Who will succeed Antnio Guterres? Discover the candidates, selection process and what happens next in choosing the next United Nations Secretary-General in 2026. Swedish diplomat Dag Hammarskjld is often called the best UN Secretary-General () for his efforts to resolve many of the most difficult crises of his time. United Nations - Secretaries General: The table provides a chronological list of the secretaries-general of the UN.
List of the most famous and important secretaries-general of the United Nations in history hand-picked by our team of expert editors and ranked by their popularity on On This Day. Antnio Guterres became the 9th and current UN Secretary General on 1 January 2017. Hes the Chief Administrative Officer of the United Nations, effectively the leader and spokesperson for the UN.
Guterres was elected secretary-general in October 2016, succeeding Ban Ki-moon at the beginning of the following year and becoming the first European to hold this office since Kurt Waldheim in 1981.