The optimists had hoped for a "San Francisco moment" in New York, as decisive and momentous as the signing of the U.N. Charter 60 years earlier in the city by the bay. Critics might well conclude that instead the United Nations had an Einstein moment, recalling his definition of madness as doing something over and over again and expecting a different result each time. The organization has been a graveyard of every previous major reform effort.
Shaken by Iraq and beset by allegations of fraud and mismanagement, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan brought together a group of 16 distinguished experts to probe the nature and gravity of today's threats and recommend collective solutions to them through a reformed U.N.
Saying that he had "resisted the temptation to include all areas in which progress is important or desirable" in order to concentrate on items on which "action is both vital and achievable," Annan drew on its report to present "an agenda of highest priorities" for forging a new consensus on key challenges and collective action.