Description: Traub recounts the dramatically entwined history of Kofi Annan and the U.N. from 1992 to the present. In Annan he sees a conscientious idealist given too little credit for advancing causes like humanitarian intervention, an honest broker crushed between American conservatives and Third World opponents, and a U.N. careerist who has absorbed that culture and cannot, in the end, escape its limitations.
Brief description: JAMES TRAUB is a contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine. He lives in New York City.
Review Quotes:
"Engaging, nuanced, and often fascinating. The Best Intentions is proof that the phrase 'U.N. page-turner' is not hopelessly oxymoronic." --The Wall Street Journal
"If you want to understand this vexing creature with its 192 heads, The Best Intentions is one of the finest guides around, indeed, the best in recent memory. . . . Beautifully written and meticulously researched." --The New York Times Book Review "One of the most definitive and accessible studies of the U.N. and its chief executive ever published." --Foreign Affairs "Fascinating . . . The book works, not just as a portrait of Annan but as one of the UN itself, in part because Annan personally encapsulates many characteristics of that inspiring but maddening organization." --Salon.com "A highly readable account of the infighting and drama that have gone on behind the scenes over the past fifteen years, along with often amusingly acerbic thumbnail sketches of several prominent characters." --The Economist