| Publication |
2012.
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| Summary/Abstract |
WHAT SORT OF DIPLOMATIC STRATEGIST IS BAN KI-MOON? SINCE BAN TOOK
office as Secretary-General of the United Nationsin 2007, there has been a
great deal of discussion about his personal diplomatic style. Until the Arab
Spring, he was typically characterized as an archetypal (though not always
effective) quiet diplomat. In January 2011, Human Rights Watch accused
Ban of having an "undue faith in his professed ability to convince by private persuasion" when dealing with repressive governments in cases such
as Myanmar, Sudan, and Sri Lanka.
1
As I argued in a previous article for
Global Governance, Ban's belief in diplomacy meant that he took too little
interest in peacekeeping during his first term leading the UN.
2
Since the
beginning of the Arab Spring, however, Ban appears to have lost some of
hisfaith in diplomatic niceties. He spoke out early in favor of the protestors
in Egypt, became a consistent supporter of military action in Libya, and
publicly condemned the Syrian regime's violence against civilians as early
as May 2011.
3
Asthe Syrian crisis deteriorated in 2012, Ban appointed first
his predecessor, Kofi Annan, and later the stalwart UN mediator Lakhdar
Brahimi as envoys to Damascus but repeatedly escalated his own criticism
of President Bashar Al-Assad.
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