Surveying the world on August 19, 2014, the UN’s
Secretary-General, Ban Ki Moon, claimed that the greatest humanitarian crises
in the history of the United Nations were outstripping any solutions coming
from the organization’s members. World leaders, he said, “have to sit down
together with an open heart to negotiate in the interests of their people,” Ban
said.[1]
Yet there’s the rub, for even though the Secretary-General avoided the point
(perhaps because it implies structural reform at the UN), national officials
acting in the interest of their respective
citizens do not necessarily have an interest in coming together with other
such officials to take care of the mammoth human external costs of countries at
war with themselves.
The full essay is at “National
Leaders Lag Global Crises”
[1]Oren
Dorell, “U.N. Chief: Crises at New High,” USA
Today, August 20, 2014.
