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Volume 5, Number 2 (2020)
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Guest Editorial
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Original Research Articles
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Kofi Annan’s Legacy of UN ReformKofi Annan’s Legacy of UN Reform
Throughout his ten-year term as United Nations Secretary-General, Kofi Annan pursued reform of the organisation in an effort to strengthen its legitimacy, effectiveness, efficiency, and fairness. This article begins with a definition of UN reform and identifies four different types: Security Council reform, reform of administrative practices, incremental procedural reforms, and creation of new institutions to address contemporary challenges. It next examines Kofi Annan’s initiation of reforms over the course of his term in office, from the time of his selection in 1996 to the end of his term in 2006. In addition to his engagement with all four forms, he also pursued improvement of the organisation in each of the three pillars of the UN Charter: security, development, and human rights, arguing that they were fundamentally interrelated. Kofi Annan believed that reform was a process, and he pursued it not only throughout his term in office but also afterwards through his foundation and other activities. His legacy of reform has been continued by his successors in the Office of Secretary-General.
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Kofi Annan, the FunambulistKofi Annan, the FunambulistKofi Annan, the seventh UN Secretary-General (UNSG), and the only UNSG to have come from the ranks of the Secretariat, has been described in many ways over the years by observers, supporters and critics. Nevertheless, in this article, the Ghanaian is compared to a funambulist. In carefully examining his entire life span, one realises the extent to which this daring, yet humble, man exhibited, metaphorically speaking, the essential qualities of a tightrope walker. From his early days in Cape Coast to his journey across continents to MIT, Annan underwent arduous preparation for what was to become a risky, sometimes painful, sometimes exhilarating, journey to the pinnacle of the UN multilateral system. In the process, he kept his focus and vision, using unique guiding principles, on the end-goal of “putting people first”. This required a balancing act of making adjustments during turbulent times and moments of disequilibrium, and in the end championing the security of people over the pressure to adhere to outmoded principles of state sovereignty.
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Kofi Annan: An Idealist in a Realist EraKofi Annan: An Idealist in a Realist Era
In this paper, we examine Kofi Annan’s two most consequential roles in the course of his long career at the United Nations: his role in the Rwanda genocide in 1994 as the head of UN peacekeeping and his tenure as Secretary-General. A realist analysis of the Rwanda genocide which continues to be the referent point for critics of both Annan and the UN is presented. We find that, more than any personal or institutional failings, it was the retreat into a post-Cold War posture of realist non-interventionism of global powers based purely on realist considerations of national interest that mostly accounted for the inevitability and irreversibility of the Rwanda genocide. The paper also explores Annan’s bold idealist global initiatives during his time as Secretary-General and his contributions to human rights, human security, justice, conflict resolution and commitment to sustainable development in Africa, the continent of his birth.
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The Last Frontier of Liberal Stabilisation: Haiti under MINUSTAH’s StewardshipThe Last Frontier of Liberal Stabilisation: Haiti under MINUSTAH’s StewardshipOver the last two decades, stabilisation missions have become a growing trend in the strategic practices of the United Nations. Such an incremental growth coincides with the hegemonic status achieved by a particular vision of peace, the liberal democratic peace paradigm. Yet, during the same period, the United Nations’ peace operation in Haiti, both the longest running and the only such stabilisation mission in operation in the Americas, resulted in a stalemate. What are the factors that explain this paradox? Are United Nations stabilisation missions an effective engine for peace and stability in today’s international politics?
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Reflection
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Kofi Annan: A Secretary-General for All SeasonsKofi Annan: A Secretary-General for All Seasons
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Kofi Annan: A Stellar Legacy Against All OddsKofi Annan: A Stellar Legacy Against All Odds