Lubricating the Wheels

Abstract

In Kofi Annan’s defense, there is plenty of evidence to suggest that he did not try to solve all the UN’s problems through attention to PR alone. Decisions already discussed in this book – such as the Brahimi Report and measures taken to improve UN peacekeeping – suggested that the UN’s seventh Secretary-General attempted to make significant changes at the organization. His election to a second term would not have been justified if he had only a shallow focus on PR. However, one can understand why an external observer of UN affairs at the end of the century could conclude that public relations seemed to be playing a much greater role in the organization’s affairs than before. Annan had the good fortune – or curse, depending on your point of view – of taking over the UN’s reigns of power at the center of the “information age”. His attention to PR was as much a consequence of the times as it was part of a deliberate strategy by the Secretary-General. Annan could ignore the imperatives of the media age only to his peril.