Eloquent arguments and practical recommendations from my friend Hugh, published in The Guardian:
Radical reformers first look backwards. Remember one UN staffer, Ralph Bunche. Once, in Cyprus, he negotiated a simultaneous peace between Israel and her four neighbours which lasted a decade, then attempted to turn down the Nobel Peace prize. Remember Dag Hammarskjöld, the secretary general who could out-negotiate Congolese separatists from the cockpit radio of his low-circling plane. Once, he helped the security council to reach an agreement by 4am and established a peacekeeping mission by 7am, then appearing unruffled for his morning meetings.
These men guarded their impartiality. And impartiality is not neutrality: the UN is not the Red Cross. The only point of the UN staff is to act with the legitimacy conferred by a universal membership and universal principles. In good hands, developing and acting creatively in the space of international consensus, this legitimacy can help lance contagious problems of daunting complexity, poisoned by mistrust.
