The Foreign Service Journal, April 2004

treaty obligation under the charter. Naturally, we antagonized many mem- bers, including traditional allies. Clearly the United Nations needed internal reform. My analysis of the problem was that a succession of sec- retaries general, generally chosen for their diplomatic experience, had little interest in management. The secre- tariat had become top-heavy and a rabbit warren of overlapping jurisdic- tions. My counterpart responsible for management (a man of great compe- tence who later became president of Finland) was repeatedly taken away from his duties for special political assignments, while management issues went unattended. My boss, Secretary General de Cuellar, a suave and cul- tured former Peruvian diplomat, did not seem to see himself as head of a large and complex organization responsible for its efficient perfor- mance. It is admittedly difficult to manage an institution staffed by a multiplicity of nationalities and cul- tures, subject to constant political pressures and claims from national governments. One of my colleagues in the secre- tariat and I spoke often and saw eye to eye on what had to be done to ratio- nalize the organization, including the need to resist political pressures and to take management responsibilities as seriously as political ones. This was a mid-level Ghanaian staff member named Kofi Annan. When he became U.N. secretary general years after I retired, my spirits soared. It has often been said that if the U.N. did not exist it would have to be invented. Unfortunately, if we had to start from scratch I do not believe we could, in the politically charged world of today, improve on what we have. So I believe it is vital to preserve what we have, with all its warts and shortcom- ings. I can only hope, however, that the time will soon come when the hos- tile attitude of so much of our present political leadership will moderate and our readiness to work with others as a member of the international com- munity, even at the cost of some of our freedom of action, will reassert itself. A P R I L 2 0 0 4 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 57 The U.N. is still essentially an assembly of sovereign states trying to find the highest common denominator for dealing with international problems.