- Hardcover: 464 pages
- Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC (6 Nov 2006)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0747580871
- ISBN-13: 978-0747580874
- Product Dimensions: 23.4 x 15.7 x 4.6 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 893,041 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Review
'A heartbreaking book about a hardworking idealist's frustrated attempts to restore the stature of the cumbersome United Nations in a world dominated by "the preemptively belligerent America".' Kirkus PRAISE FOR THE DEVIL'S PLAYGROUND 'A compact history of Times Square, its slow decline into porn-and-drug-fueled depravity, and its resurrection as a cleaned-up, corporate-sponsored shopping center. It offers a dizzying demonstration of just how many Manhattans have occupied the same slice of real estate.' New York Times 'James Traub's new book The Devil's Playground traces the history of one of the most legendary spots in the Big Apple.' NPR
Product Description
Kofi Annan described 2004 as his annus horribilis. A man who had received the Nobel Peace Prize, who was widely counted one of the greatest UN secretaries general, was nearly hounded from office by scandal. Indeed, both Annan and the institution he incarnates were so deeply shaken after the invasion of Iraq that critics, and even some friends, began asking whether this sixty-year-old experiment in global policing has outlived its usefulness. Do its failures arise from its own structure and culture, or from a clash with an American administration determined to go its own way in defiance of world opinion? James Traub, who enjoyed unprecendented access to Annan and his top aides, shadowing the UN's work for two years, delves into these questions as no one else has done before. He describes the Oil-for-Food scandal, the deep divide between those who wished to accommodate American critics and those who wished to confront them, the failed attempt to act decisively against ethnic cleansing in Sudan. And he recounts Annan's effort to respond to criticism with sweeping reform - an effort which ultimately shattered under the resistance of U.S. Ambassador John Bolton. In The Best Intentions, Traub recounts the dramatically entwined history of Kofi Annan, the United Nations, and American foreign policy from 1992 to the present. In Annan he sees a conscientious idealist given too little credit for advancing causes like humanitarian intervention and an honest broker crushed between American conservatives and third world opponents - but also a UN careerist who has absorbed its stultifying culture and cannot, in the end, escape its limitations.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
James Traub puts a human face to the United Nations through Kofi Annan, providing a detailed account of his time as secretary general. Traub takes the difficulties posed to the UN during the 1990s onwards and explains how Annan was involved during some of the worlds biggest crisis. He gives general accounts of conflicts such as Somalia, the Rwanda Genocide, the gulf wars, and how the different players in the world and more importantly the Security Council acted regarding each case.
The book shows the gentle and hopeful nature of a very intelligent man that wishes to point the world in the right directions and great difficulties he is having due to bureaucrat that is holding him back, as well as having his hands tied by the US Administration, or the threat of veto by any one of the 5 nations holding that right within the Security Council. It asks the question of what is the UN, and how does it fit in with the political agendas of some of the worlds most powerful states.
Most importantly it is a grabbing read that lets you into a world of an elite that is otherwise untouchable.
Strongly recommend to anyone who wants to have a broader view.
The book shows the gentle and hopeful nature of a very intelligent man that wishes to point the world in the right directions and great difficulties he is having due to bureaucrat that is holding him back, as well as having his hands tied by the US Administration, or the threat of veto by any one of the 5 nations holding that right within the Security Council. It asks the question of what is the UN, and how does it fit in with the political agendas of some of the worlds most powerful states.
Most importantly it is a grabbing read that lets you into a world of an elite that is otherwise untouchable.
Strongly recommend to anyone who wants to have a broader view.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
James Traub has written a lucid account of Kofi Annan's time as Secretary General. He shows how Annan's personality, a mix of hopeful idealism and bureaucratic caution, and the members' self-interest alternatively energized and frustrated the UN's ability to act usefully in the face of world crises. The old dilemma of the UN as, alternatively, an actor or merely a theatre, sometime of the absurd, is persuasively elucidated.
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