The merits of Kofi Annan

Posted By David Bosco Friday, February 24, 2012 - 1:02 PM Share

Yesterday, via Twitter, I questioned whether Kofi Annan was an inspired choice to serve as the international community's lead envoy on Syria. I pointed out, too caustically, that Annan has as part of his record leadership of UN peacekeeping during the Bosnia and Rwanda catastrophes. 

Over the next several hours, I took a pretty serious drubbing from some very well-informed folks arguing that Annan is a strong choice and has real potential to make a difference. Bruce Jones, who has actually worked with Annan at the UN on Middle East issues, offered this list of his virtues:

He has huge credibility worldwide; a strong track record of calling for demo reforms in ME before anyone else; and

he's incredibly calming, in a situ where that's desperately needed, if forceful intervention isn't forthcoming.

Middle East expert and fellow FP blogger Marc Lynch pointed out that as a former Secretary General, Annan is as high profile an envoy as could be found.

the argument for Annan is pretty simple - former Sec-Gen is highest possible ranking envoy from UN system.

Jeff Laurenti (echoing Mark Leon Goldberg) argued that Annan's post-UN work as a mediator in Kenya produced results and showed considerable deftness.

@abuaardvark @multilateralist Shouldn't forget his patching #Kenya back together. #Annan has unique int'l respect and standing

In the face of this onslaught, I'm ready to beat a tactical retreat and concede that Annan might indeed be a wise choice for this post. My real beef here is not with Annan's particular skill set but with the way in which past policy failures often slide down the memory hole. Annan headed up UN peacekeeping during the horrific years of 1994-1995. During that time, blue-helmeted peacekeepers were bystanders to the Rwandan genocide and the Srebrenica massacre. These were epic disasters.  Annan's performance, particularly in the run-up to the Rwanda genocide, was uninspired to put it mildly.

Few if any of the key international players in those disasters suffered professionally. Quite the contrary.  Annan of course was shortly thereafter elevated to the top UN job. The American UN ambassador Madeleine Albright, who insisted at the Security Council that the UN withdraw its forces from Rwanda entirely and helped rebuff calls from the peacekeeping commander for reinforcements, soon became secretary of state. Her boss, Warren Christopher--who played a lead role in fashioning America's awful Bosnia policy--glided off into gilded retirement and elder-statesman status. The U.S. assistant secretary of state for Africa U.S. National Security Council's peacekeeping expert at the time, Susan Rice, is now America's U.N. ambassador (and, to be fair, her role appears to have been fairly marginal.)

I am not ready to argue that any of these individuals should have been deemed unfit for future public responsiblities. These and other players all had distinct roles, responsibilities and duties.  But it is striking that there was almost no meaningful personal accountability for those disasters. The UN belatedly undertook examinations that sprinkled blame around liberally, but blaming everyone means blaming no one.

This points to a broader problem with international organizations that a number of scholars and policymakers have addressed: the accountability gap. Not long ago, a unit of the International Monetary Fund wrote a report on why the organization's many highly trained economists failed to anticipate the 2007-2008 financial crisis. It's a fascinating read, chock full of insights into the psychological and technical blind spots Fund staff and leaders experienced. But, once again, no one was really responsible.

Referencing Bosnia and Rwanda, Marc Lynch argued yesterday that "most learned from those failures and [are] determined not to repeat." Maybe he's right. But unless epic failures like Bosnia and Rwanda constantly dog--and are made to dog--those associated with them, there's an altogether less constructive lesson that could be drawn: catastrophic inaction ain't all that bad for your career.

 

KBC

10:12 AM ET

February 26, 2012

The world is becoming multilateral

Last time the world watched the horror of a genocide was in Rwanda. The reason was American reluctance after Somalian tragedy. Except for Turkish assault on Kurds in late 90s, NATO has never been that impotent. Turkish case was different, American help was in leaps and bounds to a democratic government to quell a serious secessionist uprising,.

The Syrian case shows that the world is on the verge of becoming multilateral. The decline of America in its ability to put an end to Syrian mass killing by their own government is a precursor of things to come.

The question whether Annan would have stopped the killing in Syria is laughable. He is not one man army. He might have made difference compared to Ban Moon but not that much. Annan relied on powers that were to be to make any difference.

 

WINSTON1984

7:27 PM ET

February 26, 2012

U.S & NATO backed Agent Provocateurs At It Again.

There is certainly cause for social unrest and mass protest in Syria. Unemployment has increased in recent years, social conditions have deteriorated, particularly since the adoption in 2006 of sweeping economic reforms under IMF guidance. The later include austerity measures, a freeze on wages, the deregulation of the financial system, trade reform and privatization. (Got to love the IMFer's, spreading their love everywhere)
The "pro-democracy" movement integrated by Islamists and supported by NATO and the "international community" did not emanate from the mainstay of Syrian civil society.
The wave of violent protests represents a very small fraction of Syrian public opinion. They are terrorist acts of a sectarian nature. They do not in any way address the broader issues of social inequality, civil rights and unemployment.
The Free Syrian Army (FSA) is a creation of the US and NATO. The objective of this armed insurrection is to trigger the response of the police and armed forces, including the deployment of tanks and armored vehicles with a view to eventually justifying a military intervention, under NATO's "responsibility to protect" mandate. ( See how the U.S. and NATO's R2P 'humanitarian intervention" in Libya left the country in ruin and chaos after killing and maiming thousands of innocent people) Promoting bombs for peace is like promoting sexual promiscuity for virginity. It's seems that Ghaddafi was ruining the Globalist central bankers exploitation of Africa at compound interest by setting up Libya's currency, the gold backed Dinar, that was independent of the private central bankers control.
A NATO-led intervention (at the behest of the NWO Globalist banking Mafia) is on the drawing board. It was drafted prior to the onset of the protest movement in March 2011. According to military and intelligence sources, NATO, Turkey and Saudi Arabia have been discussing "the form this intervention would take".
The majority of Syria's population (including the opponents of the Al Assad government) do not support the "protest movement" which is characterised by an armed insurgency.
Ironically, despite its authoritarian nature, there is considerable popular support for the government of President Bashar Al Assad, which is confirmed by the large pro-government rallies.
Syria constitutes the only (remaining) independent secular state in the Arab world. Its populist, anti-Imperialist and secular base is inherited from the dominant Baath party, which integrates Muslims, Christians and Druze. It supports the struggle of the Palestinian people.
The objective of the US-NATO alliance, as part of a bigger plan for Iran, is to ultimately displace and destroy the Syrian secular State, displace or co-opt the national economic elites and eventually replace the Syrian government of Bashar Al Assad with an Arab sheikdom, a pro-US Islamic republic or a compliant pro-US "democracy". ( A U.S. puppet state is needed in order to make things easier for Israel's expansionist agenda. For more on that look up "securing the realm")

 

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8:45 PM ET

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MAXIMB

7:41 AM ET

March 20, 2012

Well for one they couldn't

Well for one they couldn't keep lending Germany money. Also, the United States stayed on the gold standard after WWI a lot longer than other major western countries, so basically there were two groups of countries: countries that traded a lot with countries like England and got off the gold standard; and countries that traded a lot with America and therefore kept the gold standard. Other than that, America was a bit bitter about how WWI turned out for them (a Great Depression, and even more depression in Europe) so of course it took us a while to get involved with WWII..

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David Bosco reports on the new world order for The Multilateralist.

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