Letter: The UN Was Never Meant to Prevent Genocide
The World’s Failure in Rwanda Changed Kofi Annan’s Worldview
After Annan’s death, Krishnadev Calamur wrote about how the former United Nations secretary-general became a proponent of diplomatic interventions to alleviate human suffering.
Krishnadev Calamur’s article reviewing the late Kofi Annan’s achievements is the best I’ve seen, though its focus on United Nations “failures” shares something with other pieces I’ve read.
That is, it doesn’t seem to me that it can properly be said that the UN failed in, say, Rwanda, any more than it can be said that my hammock failed once again this morning to make my coffee. The reason for this takes some telling.
In 1878, the Congress of Berlin was held, nominally to clarify a single regional dispute, but actually to regulate the relationships between the great powers, and between comes at the matter with more sympathy toward countries affected by the negotiations than toward the leading negotiators, and is thus a useful source.)
