"I will stand as a candidate," Pusic said in her exclusive interview with The Independent on Sunday.
"This would be a fantastic thing, a golden opportunity ... it would be a great honour for me to even be part of the process," Pusic was quoted as saying.
The newspaper reports that "Ms Pusic – who specialised in sociology before entering politics in the early 2000s, shortly after the end of Croatia’s bloody war of independence – oversaw the country’s EU accession in 2013. The experience of post-war politics has been important training for the UN, the 62-year-old believes."
"She has, in theory, a decent shot, ." notes this British national newspaper published in London.
The Secretary-General is appointed by the UN’s General Assembly, on the recommendation of the Security Council. The informal practice of regional rotation suggests that the next UN chief – to be elected to succeed Ban Ki-moon (inset) in 2016 – should be from Eastern Europe. There is also growing support for a female secretary-general, according to The Independent.
"The process was kickstarted last year by Unesco director-general Irina Bokova, who was nominated for the role by her native Bulgaria and is thought to be an early front-runner, but family ties to the communist-era elite may act against her. Indeed, the crisis in Ukraine may make it difficult to find a compromise candidate from Eastern Europe, given the veto power of the five Security Council nations – the US, UK, France, China and Russia."
"Should the Security Council choose outside Eastern Europe, former New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark, administrator of the UN Development Programme, has excellent credentials and the UN inside track," the British newspaper writes.
"Ms Pusic, who speaks a clipped, near-flawless English, believes the process should for the first time include a public debate between candidates," The Independent reports.
"People feel that the UN isn’t known to them; it’s very abstract, out there in New York, and [then] at times of crisis there are blue helmets that drive through your country. [A debate] would make the institution more acceptable and known to the global general public," Pusic said.
She believes Croatia’s path from a post-war nationalist, authoritarian system to an EU member, and its peaceful conclusion of border disputes with Slovenia are a potential model for conflict resolution.
"We can use all that experience in Africa and Asia, in Latin America, confronting dangerous, emotional symbol-based politics," she says.
Despite being an outsider – unlike Ms Bokova and Ms Clark she is not a UN official – Ms Pusic would not want radical change at the UN. "I’d certainly focus on doing the most we can with what we’ve got."
She aims to put an emphasis on women’s health and welfare, and feels the Croatian experience of the 1990s can inform her approach to aid and development.