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Photo by Jane Scherr |
Kofi Annan Interview: Institute of International Studies, University of California, Berkeley
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Photo by Jane Scherr |
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Which secretary-general do you admire most?
Before I answer that, let me say that all my predecessors served in different times and they all made a good contribution. They had to adapt to the circumstances under which they operated. I would say Dag Hammarskjöld, in this case. Dag Hammarskjöld.
And what in particular about him?
I think I liked his fortitude, his vision, his principled and moral stand on issues. And also that fact that he was quite active and tackled the issues, regardless of the forces that were at play.
As Secretary-General, you enter this office at a time when the Cold War is over and the UN is moving into its second fifty years, and into a new millennium. How do you conceive of your role as Secretary-General? How is that role changing to meet these times?
First of all, 
I think the world we live in is changing and the UN
itself has to adapt. That's one of the reasons why I embarked on an extensive
and comprehensive reform program last year when I took over, arguing with the
member states that if we do not make this institution efficient and effective
and adapt to the realities of today, we will lose our relevance. And so we have
restructured the organization to get to focus on these priorities and come up
with a management structure that allows us to work more as a team, to pool our
efforts, and to be responsive to the problems that we deal with, particularly
on the national level where we affect the lives of people. And I would hope
that as we move into the next millennium, one of the things that I have
suggested we should do is to have a millennium assembly in the year 2000, where
heads of states will come together to discuss the UN.
As we move out of this
most brutal of centuries into the next one, what sort of UN do you want? What
sort of future do we want? That kind of reflection which took place 52 years
ago and led to the creation of the UN. Let the leaders look forward as the
others did when they gave us this wonderful UN. Let's decide how we want to
strengthen it.
Besides reformer, the other hat that you wear is that of peacemaker. And as a peacemaker you have to get people into a room and negotiate. What are the skills that are involved in doing that?
I think you require patience. You require effective preparation for the negotiation. It requires a certain appreciation of the man, or the individual that you are negotiating with, and to never underestimate them. It requires a keen sense of judgment and timing. And good intuitive judgment doesn't hurt. And some luck. It's a mixture of all these things. We tend to rationalize and sometimes say, "I did it because I'm the greatest negotiator," but it takes a mix of skills to do it.
Next page: Dealing with the Issues
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