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Matsuura: Unesco needs US support.

Japan is bidding to play a more public role in international affairs. The government has nominated Koichiro Matsuura, its ambassador to France, as a candidate for the soon-to-be-vacant post of director-general of Unesco.

Matsuura is widely considered to be one of the three front-runners for the job. He is not offering a radical reform of the role of the agency, but more efficient delivery of its existing programme, with greater emphasis on education. But he says he aims to be “realistically ambitious” in his aims and objectives for the organization.

This approach is likely to appeal to some of the agency's Western donors, particularly those keen to increase the cost-effectiveness with which their contributions are used. Less certain is whether the apparent absence of a grandiose vision will inspire support from developing countries which frequently like to see Unesco as a champion of their grievances.

In an interview with Nature, Matsuura said that, if elected, his priorities for Unesco would be a more efficient bureaucracy and enhanced efforts to persuade the United States to rejoin the organization. “US re-entry is very important,” says Matsuura. “We cannot hope to have meaningful discussions — for example about issues related to science — without the United States as an active participant.”

Full text: http://helix.nature.com/wcs/c10.html