This week, the United Nations Security Council formally notified the General Assembly that it would officially begin the process of selecting a new Secretary General in July.

Current Secretary General Kofi Annan, the king of corruption and ineptitude himself, will step down at the end of the year.

The process for selecting a Secretary-General is straightforward on paper. The Security Council makes a selection and the General Assembly endorses it. Once that's done, the new Secretary General must only swear his oath and take his chair.

Of course, nothing at the U.N. is ever simple. The real process is Byzantine – a complex behind-the-scenes dance of politicking and horse trading. The ground rules are arcane and silly, and generally don't serve the institution well.

Indeed, according to tradition, the position rotates among global regions. Under that tradition, the U.N. experts say, it's Asia's turn. After all, there's been no Secretary General from the region since U Thant of Burma served from 1961 to 1971. But traditional mandate doesn't necessarily make any sense, especially if there is a better selection who just happens to be from somewhere other than Asia.

The U.S., for example, has suggested that it be time to consider an Eastern European – especially because no Secretary General has even been from Eastern Europe. It's increasingly apparent that this suggestion will go nowhere. And the reason is China.

Although on paper the Security Council selects the Secretary General, the five permanent members of the Council are the only votes that really matter. After all, any one of those nations could veto any selection. And in the current geo-political climate, the U.S. and China are the leading protagonists. China wants an Asian; they're going to veto anyone who isn't. The U.S. wants someone who isn't corrupt and shamelessly anti-American.

So Chinese and American diplomats will spend the next couple of months quietly passing suggestions back and forth at receptions, private chats and formal meetings. At some point, they'll let the world know who they've chosen. And if things go as they have in the past, the General Assembly will soon after vote to approve the selection.

Of course, things may not go as they have in the past. You see, the anti-American cabal that runs the General Assembly is making noises that they want more say in the selection process. This group, sometimes called the non-aligned movement – a ridiculous, never-accurate anachronism of the Cold War era – is composed of poorer nations and the flotsam and jetsam of dictators, totalitarian regimes and banana republics that comprise the majority of General Assembly members. They're tired, they say, of being run over by the big, rich countries that run the Security Council. So they're threatening to vote down whoever the Security Council sends over for their consideration.

It's important to understand their real motivation. For the last few years, there's been a growing movement to embrace meaningful reforms at the U.N. That effort continues today, as the U.S. and other major U.N. funders are withholding some of their money pending real action towards reform. But it's the same countries threatening to torpedo the process of selecting a new Secretary General that are standing staunchly in the way of reform. They oppose reform because they're the ones benefiting from the current system of corruption and incompetence.

We've made it clear in the past that we strongly support the U.S.'s decision not to continue shipping endless sums of U.S. taxpayer dollars to the U.N. until it begins to shape up. And the non-aligned nations' threat to stand in the way of the selection of the next Secretary General isn't exactly compelling. After all, would anyone notice?

Picking a Secretary General is an important decision. The U.S. should, as it is, consider only candidates who will be more friendly to its interests than the current U.N. leadership. At the same time, the U.N. needs a leader who can begin the process of moving it away from the farce the world body has become.