GPPi publication takes stock of the Annan years

GPPi Associate Director Thorsten Benner published a piece taking stock of Kofi Annan’s tenure as UN Secretary-General in the December issue of Internationale Politik, the premier German journal on foreign policy published by the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP). The article, titled Siyphos am East River. Eine Bilanz der Ära Annan (​“Sisyphus on the East River: Taking Stock of the Annan Era”) reviews Annan’s work in four crucial areas: peace and security, human rights, development and management of the UN Secretariat. The article emphasizes Annan’s role as a ​“norm entrepreneur” advocating a new understanding of sovereignty that paved the way for the ​“responsibility to protect” as well as inventing and promoting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Unlike his predecessor Boutros-Ghali, Annan deserves credit for having made the universiality of human rights a cornerstone of his work. Forging new alliances with business and civil society (such as the Global Compact) is also a lasting legacy of the Annan years. Annan raised the political profile of the position of UN Secetary-General in a way that only compares to Dag Hammerskjöld. However, he partly undermined his agenda by not devoting enough attention and energy to the critical task of reforming the UN Secretariat’s bureaucracy, a failure that came to haunt Annan during the discussions on the oil-for-food program.