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Ethan (KingofSpades)'s avatar

I'm more surprised an American was chosen because it has seemed like an unwritten rule that an American shouldn't be Pope. It seemed to be for similar reasons as for why there has never been an American Secretary-General of the UN.

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michaelflutist's avatar

I disagree on the analogy because the U.N. is in the U.S., and I feel like that's a major reason for that unwritten rule.

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bpfish's avatar

I don't think residents of the Security Council nations are allowed to be Secretary-General. Even if they were, recommendations come from the Council, and there's no way China or Russia would allow an American or vice-versa. Actually, America probably would allow a Russian now.

The very first Secretary-General was actually from the UK but only served in an Acting capacity until the first true Sec-Gen could be appointed.

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bpfish's avatar

Also, small- to middle-sized nations have generally been chosen, so it definitely seems there is an effort to avoid giving too much power to nations that already have a lot of power and influence globally (German, Japan, Italy, etc.). South Korea seems to be the largest economy to have had a Sec-Gen. States in near-perpetual conflict with other nations like Israel and India are probably not going to make it either.

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michaelflutist's avatar

Well, the two Koreas are at war, with only an armistice and occasional flareups.

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JanusIanitos's avatar

Korea is a weird case. I think for most people it's an easy conflict to reduce to out of sight, out of mind.

It's a conflict that could escalate into a high intensity war, and would be an extremely terrible one were it to do so. Millions dead, lots of damage to the global economy, millions more displaced, geopolitical saber rattling between the world's two largest militaries, risks of nuclear weapon use... It could get very bad, very fast.

Despite all of that, for generations now it's been very low intensity. Makes it easy for people to brush it aside, mentally.

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Ethan (KingofSpades)'s avatar

They can also meet in Geneva. It doesn't have to be the US. The US being a permanent member of the Security Council is probably the biggest reason.

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michaelflutist's avatar

That's valid.

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Paleo's avatar

HeтАЩs spent most of his adult life out of the country and has Peruvian citizenship. And

The last X post from the new pope was April 14, when he shared a post about the deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia to El Salvador, with the questions, тАЬDo you not see the suffering? Is your conscience not disturbed? How can you stay quiet?тАЭ

https://thehill.com/policy/international/5290771-robert-prevost-pope-leo/

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@verylongtimelurker's avatar

All the Popes were Italian for about 450 years, until a Pole was chosen. So the sample size since then is quite small (4: Poland,Germany, Argentina, USA/Peru).

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