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The Best Intentions: Kofi Annan and the UN in the Era of American World Power
Updated for the Paperback Edition
During his first term as secretary-general of the United Nations, Kofi Annan was one of the most widely admired men in the world. In 2001, he won the Nobel Peace Prize. Then the UN failed to stop war in Iraq and genocide in Darfur, and the institution was engulfed by the Oil-for-Food scandal. By the time Annan left office in December 2006, both he and the UN had suffered a terrible loss of standing.
Did the UN's failures arise from its own structure and culture or from a clash with an American administration determined to go its own way in defiance of world opinion?
In The Best Intentions, New York Times Magazine writer James Traub traces the entwined histories of Kofi Annan and the UN from 1992 to the present, and offers a definitive portrait of the institution's role in the age of American dominance.
During his first term as secretary-general of the United Nations, Kofi Annan was one of the most widely admired men in the world. In 2001, he won the Nobel Peace Prize. Then the UN failed to stop war in Iraq and genocide in Darfur, and the institution was engulfed by the Oil-for-Food scandal. By the time Annan left office in December 2006, both he and the UN had suffered a terrible loss of standing.
Did the UN's failures arise from its own structure and culture or from a clash with an American administration determined to go its own way in defiance of world opinion?
In The Best Intentions, New York Times Magazine writer James Traub traces the entwined histories of Kofi Annan and the UN from 1992 to the present, and offers a definitive portrait of the institution's role in the age of American dominance.
528 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2006
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
July 16, 2012
The United Nations is one of the few institutions that can be said to have the respect of much of the world. During my elementary school days, October 24 of every year was marked with the donning of costumes from different countries and a brief program about the UN and its activities. I was one of those who was impresed with this institution that supposedly undertakes programs for a better world.
However, as time went by and I became more knowledgeable about the real world, it soon became clear that the UN today is not the institution that can be relied on to secure justice and peace. After all, the United Nations are diverse; there are democratic countries, there are not-so democratic countries, and there are even totalitarian dictatorships. So the standard for preserving world peace and securing justice is a double standard; nations commonly take action on a problem if doing so suits their own national interests. And Russia and China? Well, they do not even have the moral authority to confront other dictatorships and human rights abuses because they are those things themselves. (Not to mention that they also profit from such dictatorships: case in point-Russian and Chinese stakes in Africa and, today, in Syria.)
Thus, the United Nations are anything but united. Though they have made substantial achievements in the fields of development, health, and science, the United Nations as an institution is still woefully inadequate to tackle the problems it was supposed to address when it was created: peace, security, justice. The world's oppressed peoples can only hope that the United Nations can shape up and implement reforms. Otherwise, it can just drop the word "United" from its name and just go along with "The Nations". Now that's lowering the expectations.
However, as time went by and I became more knowledgeable about the real world, it soon became clear that the UN today is not the institution that can be relied on to secure justice and peace. After all, the United Nations are diverse; there are democratic countries, there are not-so democratic countries, and there are even totalitarian dictatorships. So the standard for preserving world peace and securing justice is a double standard; nations commonly take action on a problem if doing so suits their own national interests. And Russia and China? Well, they do not even have the moral authority to confront other dictatorships and human rights abuses because they are those things themselves. (Not to mention that they also profit from such dictatorships: case in point-Russian and Chinese stakes in Africa and, today, in Syria.)
Thus, the United Nations are anything but united. Though they have made substantial achievements in the fields of development, health, and science, the United Nations as an institution is still woefully inadequate to tackle the problems it was supposed to address when it was created: peace, security, justice. The world's oppressed peoples can only hope that the United Nations can shape up and implement reforms. Otherwise, it can just drop the word "United" from its name and just go along with "The Nations". Now that's lowering the expectations.
February 1, 2024
This book is remarkable for the access its author had to its primary subject—Kofi Annan—and laudable for its on-the-ground accounts of various instances of diplomatic negotiation and bureaucratic intrigue, much of which is revealed to be quite byzantine.
Reading in 2024, I was struck by how little I’d credited the U.N.’s role in the postwar (or at least post-regime-change) rebuilding of Afghanistan and Iraq. Credit James Traub for attempting a much more nuanced account of the U.N.’s work than the American media is wont to provide. (And this was especially the case during the period of his reporting.)
Accounts of interventions in Bosnia, Kosovo, Sierra Leone, and Sudan (among others) are illuminating, and at times, maddening in considering the U.N.’s inability to act in a timely or effective manner.
Much of the book is concerned with the U.N.’s relationship with its primary patron, the U.S., and the questions of “reform” that dogged the U.N. throughout Annan’s tenure.
The book does feel a bit disjointed at times, probably as a result of being compiled largely from separate magazine pieces. The order of events isn’t always chronological. Also, with Traub making no attempt to hide either his presence in the narrative or his point of view, the book is tendentious and even self-indulgent at times. (Chapter 23, “Model U.N.,” should have been excised altogether, which would have helped trim the book’s excessive length.)
All-in-all, this book has a number of flaws, but provides a valuable window into an institution and its chief spokesman at a pivotal time in modern history.
Reading in 2024, I was struck by how little I’d credited the U.N.’s role in the postwar (or at least post-regime-change) rebuilding of Afghanistan and Iraq. Credit James Traub for attempting a much more nuanced account of the U.N.’s work than the American media is wont to provide. (And this was especially the case during the period of his reporting.)
Accounts of interventions in Bosnia, Kosovo, Sierra Leone, and Sudan (among others) are illuminating, and at times, maddening in considering the U.N.’s inability to act in a timely or effective manner.
Much of the book is concerned with the U.N.’s relationship with its primary patron, the U.S., and the questions of “reform” that dogged the U.N. throughout Annan’s tenure.
The book does feel a bit disjointed at times, probably as a result of being compiled largely from separate magazine pieces. The order of events isn’t always chronological. Also, with Traub making no attempt to hide either his presence in the narrative or his point of view, the book is tendentious and even self-indulgent at times. (Chapter 23, “Model U.N.,” should have been excised altogether, which would have helped trim the book’s excessive length.)
All-in-all, this book has a number of flaws, but provides a valuable window into an institution and its chief spokesman at a pivotal time in modern history.
March 18, 2010
Edward Mortimer has chosen to discuss James Traub’s
The Best Intentions: Kofi Annan and the UN in the Era of American World Power
on FiveBooks as one of the top five on his subject – The UN, saying that:
Traub is a New York Times reporter and feature writer. And he had done a profile of Kofi Annan quite early in his term of office, and was obviously interested in him as a person. And then he thought, people will be interested when Kofi completes his term in some sort of insider’s account of what it was like. And so he essentially negotiated a deal with Kofi Annan, whereby he was kind of embedded in the Secretary-General’s office.
The full interview is available here:http://five-books.com/interviews/edward-mortimer
Traub is a New York Times reporter and feature writer. And he had done a profile of Kofi Annan quite early in his term of office, and was obviously interested in him as a person. And then he thought, people will be interested when Kofi completes his term in some sort of insider’s account of what it was like. And so he essentially negotiated a deal with Kofi Annan, whereby he was kind of embedded in the Secretary-General’s office.
The full interview is available here:http://five-books.com/interviews/edward-mortimer
February 3, 2011
The cover image shows blurry Kofi Annan in the background with George W. Bush in sharp focus in the foreground, and it's not too misleading. Annan slides out of grasp, constant though he is among the dozens of other diplomats, technocrats, politicians, military commanders, and UN personnel who crowd the book. Sometimes it seems like Annan's amiability and hyperdiplomacy make him less interesting to Traub than the sharp-edged hawks of the Bush II administration.
Not a book I see myself widely recommending, though I learned a lot about the UN and its limitations by reading it.
Not a book I see myself widely recommending, though I learned a lot about the UN and its limitations by reading it.
December 27, 2007
Excellent exploration of the office of the UN Secretary General. Some review of those that preceded Kofi Annan, but the bulk of the book considers Annan's tenure on the 38th floor, including Oil For Food, Iraq and the crisis in the DRC. Very readable.
July 21, 2009
Great insights into the sausage making process that is the UN, the role of the Secretary General and how powerless he is, and how remarkable it was that Kofi Annan was able to achieve what he did from his bully pulpit.
September 9, 2015
There are books that you wish it never ends. You enjoy reading bits of it every now and it never fails to keep you thinking. This is definitely one of these books and I am enjoying it to the level that I don't want to finish it.
May 13, 2008
Awesome book if you want to learn more about how the UN Security Council works and what a kick ass man Kofi is.
February 29, 2008
An amazingly insightful and personal account of the inner workings of the 38th Floor of the UN from the early 1990s to 2006.
June 21, 2008
good look at a well meaning Sec Gen of UN - informative
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews