Former South Korean Foreign Minsiter Ban Ki-moon has announced his desire to serve a second term as UN Secretary-General. His re-election is virtually assured as appears to have the support of all five permanent UN Security Council members. Still, he does not deserve it.

The problem has not been his (cowardly) stance on human rights in China, his (economically-disastrous) advocacy for global warming treaties, or his (admirable) position on the wave of dissent in the Arab Middle East. Rather, it is that he takes any stance at all. The secretary-general is meant to be an administrator, in charge of an organization beset by corruption and inefficiency. It was never meant to be a soapbox for an internationalist agenda or, indeed, for any agenda.

With the United Nations hemorrhaging money faster even than the world economy, it’s time that Turtle Bay gets its own house in order. It needs a leader, not a globe-trotter. The only question the Obama administration should ask Ban Ki-moon is what he has done to make the UN accountable to its own balance sheet and its officials accountable to the rule of law and fiscal responsibility. The sooner the UN remembers, institutionally, that it is to be a forum for nation-states, not an unaccountable body meant to supplant them, the better off we all will be.