ВЫБОРЫ ГЛАВЫ ЮНЕСКО: КАК В КАИРЕ ВОСПРИНЯЛИ ПАРИЖСКУЮ НЕУДАЧУ

Анализируются особенности электоральной кампании в ЮНЕСКО в октябре 2017 г. по переизбранию ее генерального директора. На место преемника И.Боковой (Болгария), возглавлявшей организацию с 2009 г. два срока подряд, было выдвинуто рекордное число кандидатов - 9, четверо из которых представляли арабский мир. Главная борьба развернулась между представителями Франции, Катара и Египта. Особое внимание уделяется оценке хода предвыборной кампании и ее результатов в египетских СМИ.

THE ELECTION OF UNESCO HEAD: HOW CAIRO PERCEIVED THE PARIS FAILURE

The paper explores the features of the General director election campaign in UNESCO in October 2017. A record number of candidates - 9, four of whom represented the Arab states, were nominated as successor of Irina Bokova (Bulgaria), who led the organization since 2009 for two consecutive terms. The main struggle unfolded among the representatives of France, Qatar and Egypt. The election campaign reflected sharp contradictions between the Arab countries, in particular, between Egypt and Qatar, whose representatives could not find a mutually beneficial compromise and act together, so that the representative of the Arab world would get the prestigious post of the UNESCO head. For the period of the organization's existence, 7 out of 10 elected leaders represented Europe or North America. Particular attention is paid to the evaluation of the election campaign and its results in the Egyptian media. They described the victory of the former Minister of Culture of France O. Azulay as «an act of provocation against the Arab states», stressing that UNESCO has become "the arena of clashes and discussions on issues that are acute for Arabs, in particular the status of Jerusalem.» Besides that the Egyptian media noted that the Egypt's candidate led a professionally built, honest and impeccable in moral terms campaign. Analyzing the reasons for her failure they pointed to such negative aspects of the electoral process as behind-the-scenes lobbying, unfairplay of competitors, and use of administrative resources by the winningparty.