Democratic Reforms Must Go Hand in Hand with Economic Changes, Annan Says

By Alvin Powell

Contributing Writer

Human rights and democratic reforms must accompany global economic change if the benefits of a global economy are not to be fleeting and denied much of the world's population, United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan warned last week.

Annan brought his message to a packed Sanders Theatre crowd, made up mostly of students. Annan could have filled Sanders twice over, however. After Sanders was full, hundreds of students stood outside in a line that stretched to Massachusetts Hall in Harvard Yard.

Though delivered to a Harvard crowd, Annan said he hoped his message would also reach the world beyond. That world is a place suddenly awash in turmoil, from the Asian financial crisis and new wars in Africa, to the social and financial chaos in Russia and tension along the Iran/Afghan border.

"Today, globalization is rapidly losing its luster in parts of the world," Annan said. "What began as a currency crisis in Thailand 14 months ago has, so far, resulted in a contagion of economic insolvency and political paralysis. Globalization is seen by a growing number not as a friend of prosperity, but as its enemy; not as a vehicle for development, but as an ever-tightening vise increasing the demands on states to provide safety nets, while limiting their ability to do so."

Annan was introduced by Harvard President Neil L. Rudenstine, who said that in less than two years as secretary-general, Annan has already had a significant impact on world affairs. Rudenstine welcomed Annan as "someone who with quiet eloquence, wisdom, and experience, has contributed to establishing a more harmonious and stable world."

Annan's popularity with the crowd was apparent. Those who managed to get inside gave him three standing ovations. Even the handful of protesters who showed up to voice their concerns about the U.N.'s sanctions against Iraq said they oppose U.S. action in the Security Council more than any actions of Annan himself.

Annan, who was born in Ghana, is very familiar with the ongoing crisis in Iraq. After Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait and before he became secretary-general, Annan traveled to Iraq to secure the repatriation of 900 U.N. international staff. In addition, he helped negotiate the release of Western hostages from Iraq.

Annan became the United Nations' seventh secretary-general in January 1997, succeeding Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt. Annan's appointment caps a U.N. career that spans more than 30 years and includes several years as under-secretary-general for peace-keeping operations.

The United Nations has assumed a more important role in world affairs in recent years. The end of the Cold War reduced East-West tensions, but allowed long-suppressed regional conflicts to break out. Of the 43 peace-keeping operations in U.N. history, 28 have been since 1989.

Professor Samuel P. Huntington, chairman of the Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies, which sponsored Annan's visit, said Annan has already made a significant impact on the U.N. and could turn out to be the most influential secretary-general since Dag Hammarskjold of Sweden, who served from 1953 until his death in a plane crash in Africa in 1961.

The Evolution of a New World Order

In his speech, Annan described a world released from the ideological constraints of the Cold War, but which hasn't realized the dreamt-for benefits of a global economy that lifts all on a rising tide of prosperity.

He laid the blame for the current economic crisis on the regimes whose economies are based on "unsound policies, corruption, and illiberal politics." The blame doesn't reside solely within those countries, however. Annan said the blame is shared by those with irresponsible lending practices and aggressive investment policies.

Proponents of economic globalization, he said, have assumed that democracy would naturally follow economic liberalization. It's becoming increasingly apparent, he said, that political globalization -- the spread of democracy and human rights -- needs to be advocated [for] as forcefully as economic globalization.

"Unless the basic principles of equity and liberty are defended in the political arena and advanced as critical conditions for economic growth, they may suffer rejection," Annan said. "Economic despair will be followed by political turmoil and all of the advances for freedom of the last half-century could be lost."

With the global economic crisis, the move toward freedom and human rights has already faltered, prompting a backlash that Annan said takes three different forms:

* Nationalism -- Annan said nationalism is perhaps the most dangerous reaction. Leaders of economically depressed countries see their homelands as being victimized by globalization and try to retain popular support by reviving historic conflicts within their own country and with neighboring countries.

* "Illiberal solutions" -- Illiberal solutions result in a call for a single strong leader who can act in the nation's interests in a time of crisis. This scenario has a tendency to play itself out in countries with weak political systems that are unable to effectively respond to crises.

* Populism -- In populism, leaders blame political and economic liberalization for the nation's ills and use protectionism to insulate their country from the rest of the world. In this case, globalization is used as political cover for a country's leaders and as a scapegoat for problems within a country.

"If globalization is to succeed, it must succeed for poor and rich alike," Annan said. "It must deliver rights no less than riches. It must provide social justice and equity no less than economic prosperity and enhanced communication. It must be harnessed to the cause not of capital alone, but of development and prosperity for the poorest of the world."