How Do We Explain Kofi Annan’s Enduring Moral Prestige?
How Do We Explain Kofi Annan’s Enduring Moral Prestige? « Sigmund, Carl and Alfred
Kofi Annan’s tenure as Secretary General of the United Nations has been marked by failure. The genocidal massacres at Srebrenica and in Rwanda occurred on his watch and the underlying conditions which led up to those tragic events are still unresolved. Annan has had successes as well but they have been overshadowed by those monumental events. His final years saw his credibility besmirched by corruption allegations and nepotism.
Nevertheless, Annan’s moral credibility remains intact. Is it because of the man or the institution? Is Annan a survivor and crafty politician or does the United Nations take care of it’s own? And what are the characteristics of a great United Nations Secretary General?
How do we explain Kofi Annan’s enduring moral prestige? The puzzle is that it has survived failures, both his own and those of the institution he served for fifty years.1 Personal charisma is only part of the story. In addition to his charm, of which there is plenty, there is the authority that comes from experience. Few people have spent so much time around negotiating tables with thugs, warlords, and dictators. He has made himself the world’s emissary to the dark side.
To these often dire negotiations, he brought a soothing temperament that became second nature early in his Ghanaian childhood. His father, Henry Reginald Annan, lived across two worlds, as a senior executive with a British multinational corporation and a hereditary chieftain in a country poised on the eve of national independence. In the Ghanaian struggle, the Annan family occupied the cautious middle, supporting independence but keeping their distance from the revolutionary nationalism of Kwame Nkrumah.
From these experiences, Annan became adept at circumspection and skillful in dealing with all sides, while keeping his own cards concealed. It was a temperament perfect for the UN. When he found his career in Ghana blocked by a succession of military regimes, he enlisted in the UN and has spent all his life in its upper reaches in New York and Geneva. Like Barack Obama, he learned early to live across racial divides and to position himself as the rational and relaxed confidant of all, while belonging finally to no one but himself.
