Kofi Annan - Interventions: A Life in War and Peace

Praise for Interventions by Kofi Annan

[A] resolute, detailed, and unflinching review of [Annans] most difficult hours... No one ever came closer to being the voice of we the peoples and no one paid a higher price for it. The world still needs such a voice, but the next person who tries to fill that role will want to reflect long and hard on the lessons of this candid, courageous, and unsparing memoir.

Michael Ignatieff, The New York Review of Books

[A] taut and timely memoir... a treatise on the doctrine that has defined and scarred the postcold war years: interventionism. It is part reflection, part stricture, and part call to arms. No one is better suited to address this, for it has also defined and scarred Annan himself.

Financial Times

Only after reading his recently published book, Interventions: A Life in War and Peace , did I get a true sense of how difficult a job he had. As a voluntary organization of 192 states, its easy to criticize the effectiveness of the UN, but without it, we would be substantially further behind on issues of global health and development.... For anybody who wants to understand the complexities of the role of the Secretary General, this book is an illuminating read.

Bill Gates, The Gates Notes

[A] fluent, compelling account... clear-eyed and honest... Annan emerges as an effective and charismatic embodiment of the UNs ideals. His softly spoken manner and astute diplomacy have tended to mask his sharp judgments, pragmatic assessments, contempt for villains, and disdain of the modish and self-serving tosh spoken by the politically correct, the vainglorious Third World champions, the corrupt, and the compromised.

The Times (London)

Annan doesnt shy away from admitting that he made mistakes, or that the UN needs to reform its outdated administrative structures. Yet he mounts a passionate, impressive defence of the organization.... The UN may be imperfect, but this powerful memoir shows that it is vital.

The Sunday Times (London)

This is a good, lucid book by a wise and compassionate man who, despite having spent much of his life in the political stratosphere, never loses sight of the plight of the little man.

The Daily Telegraph (London)

Avoiding the nebulous rhetoric of many political memoirs, Annan instead provides a peacemakers invaluable perspective on those crises as well as insight into the daunting challenges facing international diplomats in todays strife-ridden world.

Booklist

[An] interesting memoir... The accounts related by Annan... are worth every minute spent reading them. Nobody alive can quite match what he has heard and seen. As a bonus, he names names of national rulers and less well-known diplomats. For readers who want to identify heroes and villains, the book provides plenty of material.... With his book as his legacy, perhaps [Annan] will inspire younger individuals to make inroads against incredible cruelty around the world.

The Christian Science Monitor

An insiders personal account based on lessons drawn from long experience.

Kirkus Reviews

In this thought-provoking new memoir, Kofi Annan describes the peaceful and more equitable world that is within our grasp and offers his candid perspective on the challenges we must overcome to get there. Interventions is a powerful reminder that the United Nations still mattersand must continue to matter if we want our new century to be more free, peaceful, and prosperous than the last.

President William J. Clinton

Kofi Annan has been a powerful voice for the poor and a tireless advocate for peace. As a catalyst for international security and human rights, Annan reminds us that we, as a global community, are more alike than different. His lifes work demonstrates what is possible when we focus on the universal values of equality, tolerance, and human dignity.

Bill Gates

Kofi Annan is a great global leader of our time. This wonderful book gives the readers a lucid and enjoyable understanding of the kind of reasoning and commitment that has made Annan such a force for good in the troubled world in which we live.

Amartya Sen

Behind the velvet tones of Kofi Annans dulcet Ghanaian voice, theres a fearsome and fearless iron will, intent on finding solutions to some of the worlds biggest problems.

Bono

An insightful and candid account of the most defining and complex conflicts and peace deals of the last decades of the twentieth century intertwined with the vision and the life journey of one of the most outstanding global leaders of our times. Kofi Annan marks his footprint in history with leadership values in which truth, humility, and dignity are the weaving threads.

Graa Machel, founder of the Graa Machel Trust

Kofi Annan gives a candid, clear, and thoughtful account of his successes and failures in one of the worlds most challenging and thankless jobs.

Lee Kuan Yew, former prime minister of the Republic of Singapore

PENGUIN BOOKS

INTERVENTIONS

Kofi Annan was the seventh secretary-general of the United Nationsserving two terms from January 1, 1997, to December 31, 2006and was the first to emerge from the ranks of United Nations staff. Annan has served the United Nations in various capacities since 1962, including working as the under-secretary-general for peacekeeping operations and the special representative of the secretary-general to the former Yugoslavia. Born in Ghana in 1938, Annan is the first sub-Saharan African to hold the post of secretary-general. In 2001, Kofi Annan and the United Nations were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize with the citation praising Annans leadership for bringing new life to the organization.

Nader Mousavizadeh is the chief executive officer of Oxford Analytica, a global analysis and advisory firm. Previously, Mousavizadeh served at the United Nations in the office of the secretary-general from 1997 to 2003 and was an investment banker at Goldman Sachs. A Rhodes Scholar and a graduate of Harvard College, he received his MBA from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as a Sloan Fellow. He is a foreign affairs columnist for Reuters and the editor of The Black Book of Bosnia .

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First published in the United States of America by The Penguin Press, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 2012

Published in Penguin Books 2013

Copyright 2012 by Kofi A. Annan

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Ebook ISBN 9781101595961

THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS HAS CATALOGED THE HARDCOVER EDITION AS FOLLOWS:

Annan, Kofi A. (Kofi Atta)

Interventions : a life in war and peace / Kofi Annan with Nader Mousavizadeh.

p. cm.

ISBN 9781594204203 (hc.)

ISBN 9780143123958 (pbk.)

1. Annan, Kofi A. (Kofi Atta) 2. World politics1989 3. United NationsBiography. 4. StatesmenGhanaBiography. I. Mousavizadeh, Nader. II. Title.

D839.7.A56A32012

341.23092dc23

[B]

Penguin is committed to publishing works of quality and integrity. In that spirit, we are proud to offer this book to our readers; however, the story, the experiences, and the words are the authors alone.

Cover design: Darren Haggar