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World's Toughest Job

World's Toughest Job

By: Foreign Policy
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The United Nations secretary-general has been said to hold the “most impossible job in the world.” And for just the 10th time in the organization’s history, a new candidate will soon be stepping into that role. Through immersive storytelling and voices from around the globe, World’s Toughest Job explores the challenges facing the next UN leader. Over eight episodes, we’ll examine how the secretary-general might make a difference on issues including economic turbulence, superpower rivalries, artificial intelligence, inequality, and climate change. This is about more than the one person who will step up to lead an organization. It’s an existential moment for the UN, the one place where countries have a voice and a vote. Get it wrong, and we all feel the consequences. Get it right, and it could mark a turning point for the organization … and the world. World's Toughest Job is a co-production of Foreign Policy and the UN Foundation. Politics & Government
Episodes
  • The Triage Game: Own, Delegate, or Drop

    The Triage Game: Own, Delegate, or Drop
    Sep 29 2026
    This season on World’s Toughest Job, host Jasmin Baoumy and co-host Mark Malloch-Brown asked how the next United Nations secretary-general might actually make a difference on issues such as complex wars, climate change, and artificial intelligence. But any secretary-general’s most scarce resource is time. So in this special episode, recorded live at this year’s U.N. General Assembly, we wanted to do something a little different. We asked our panelists what progress the next secretary-general needs to deliver personally in their first 100 days, what they should delegate to others, and what they should take off the world body’s plate entirely. We hear from Barbadian Prime Minister Mia Mottley; Comfort Ero, analyst, policymaker, and the president and CEO of the International Crisis Group; and Thant Myint-U, historian, author, and a senior fellow at the UN Foundation. World’s Toughest Job is a co-production of Foreign Policy and the UN Foundation.
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    41 mins
  • What Can the Next Secretary-General Do to Protect the Future?

    What Can the Next Secretary-General Do to Protect the Future?
    Jun 30 2026
    In 1987, the United Nations called a huge meeting in Montreal to negotiate the phaseout of ozone-depleting chemicals. And… it worked. The ozone layer is healing. And the Montreal Protocol is probably the best environmental treaty that we’ve ever pulled off. But the Montreal Protocol had to deal with one set of chemicals. A handful of companies. A replacement that was already sitting on the shelf. And what the next U.N. secretary-general inherits is nothing like that. In this last episode of World’s Toughest Job, we’re asking: Can the next secretary-general turn the U.N. from a place where the future gets talked about into a place where it gets protected? Host Jasmin Bauomy and co-host Mark Malloch-Brown are joined by Ana Toni, the CEO of COP30 and Brazil’s national secretary for climate change; Arunabha Ghosh, the founder and CEO of the Council on Energy, Environment, and Water and COP30’s special envoy for South Asia; and Jacob Ellis, a policymaker, civil society leader, and champion for intergenerational fairness. He works at the Office of the Future Generations Commissioner for Wales in support of the implementation of Wales’ world-leading Well-Being of Future Generations Act. World’s Toughest Job is a co-production of Foreign Policy and the UN Foundation.
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    48 mins
  • Can the UN Still Act as the Emergency Platform the World Needs?

    Can the UN Still Act as the Emergency Platform the World Needs?
    Jun 23 2026
    The 1997 East Asian financial crisis, the 2008 global food and energy crisis, and the COVID-19 pandemic are all examples of global systemic shocks. And when the next secretary-general takes office in January 2027, there will most likely be another complex crisis underway. These days, a new complex global crisis pops up about as often as the Olympics. And the UN secretary-general may be the only leader who can persuade a divided world to respond as one. Host Jasmin Bauomy and co-host Mark Malloch-Brown are joined by Sigrid Kaag, a former Dutch deputy prime minister and finance minister and UN special coordinator for the Middle East peace process; Martin Griffiths, a former UN undersecretary for humanitarian affairs; and Aarathi Krishnan, the founder and CEO of RAKSHA Intelligence Futures. World’s Toughest Job is a co-production of Foreign Policy and the UN Foundation.
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    39 mins
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