A Decent Man Working in Troubled Times Realpolitik: Kofi Annan Realpolitik: Kofi Annan Trevor Royle On the End of the Un Chief's 10- Year Reign

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SO farewell then Kofi Annan. Later this week you'll make your last public pronouncement and then it will be time to start clearing your desk on the 38th floor of the UN building in New York, your embattled eyrie for the past 10 years. Difficult though it is to believe that your restless soul will accept carpet slippers and a seat at the fireside, ahead lies the anonymity of retirement and a chance to look back at your time in the world's hot seat.

It has been quite a ride. During Annan's watch, the world has witnessed crisis after crisis, and he did not have to go out of his way to look for trouble; it came looking for him. From the outset, the Balkans was the first real test of the UN's ability to deal with crisis management, in what should be called the wars of the Yugoslav succession, and initially it failed the test. Not since the second world war had the world seen displacement on such a huge scale as the new republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina learned the grim lesson that national recognition did not mean international protection.

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A Decent Man Working in Troubled Times Realpolitik: Kofi Annan Realpolitik: Kofi Annan Trevor Royle On the End of the Un Chief's 10- Year Reign

Africa provided other equally stark reminders that the writ of the UN does not run as far or as strongly as the founders m...

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