Dominique Strauss-Khan’s arrest and potentially imminent resignation, shines a light on debates over the IMF’s leadership selection process. Namely, whether European heads of state will once again cherry pick the head of the Fund, or if they will heed to calls for respecting their promise to have an open and merit based selection process.
Amongst the gossip and speculation, some news sources have pondered what this event means both for French politics and the direction of the world’s lender of last resort. Many feel it’s high time the Fund got with the times and appointed a non-European head, ideally one from the developing world.
In the Guardian today Michael Burke asks whether the next IMF head should be from China or India. Such a move would on the one hand mark a stark break with convention, but on the other it will likely leave us with a head that may be as asia-centric as DSK was euro –centric. Although the names of some candidate from the global south have been proposed, for those wishing for such a change initial signs aren’t good. Angela Merkel has already declared that European leaders will propose a candidate when DSK steps down. Arguing that in light of the present euro-zone crisis, “Europe has good candidates to offer”.
In the mean time US-national John Lipsky, the Deputy Managing Director since 2006, has been appointed as interim boss.
Here at IMFboss the concerns that lead us to launch the site remain, we call for an open and fair selection process with voting done by a ‘double majority’ of states and shares, reflecting the view of and gaining legitimacy from the support of all member nations.
IMF Boss 
It is an odd habit indeed for an organisation that preaches meritocracy to limit its pool of candidates to citizens of a certain subset of countries–be they in Europe or elsewhere (say like the BRICS). But surely the answer to the current predicament isn’t to continue choosing candidates by passport.
If you want to avoid further predicaments similar to this, pick a woman!
Malcolm
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