Publication

This paper examines which nation-states have held the most influential positions in the UN Secretariat over a 60-year period and what factors have enabled them to do so. It concludes that the most overrepresented countries have been small, rich democracies, such as the Nordic states, and that the key determinants of who secured senior-level positions have included a competing country's level of democracy, its investment in diplomacy, and how much economic/military power it has.