'Incremental adaptations will not suffice.' (Kofi Annan's plans for the UN).

While describing himself as "prudently optimistic" about the overall functioning and efficacy of the United Nations, Secretary-General Kofi Annan has reaffirmed that the Organization must "undergo fundamental, not piecemeal, reform". Since taking office, he says, he has had "one overriding objective: to induce greater unity of purpose, coherence of efforts and responsiveness throughout the Organization so that it can more effectively help meet the challenges of our times".

In his first annual Report on the work of the Organization, Mr. Annan describes his proposals for institutional reform as intended to ensure that the United Nations remains a vital and effective instrument of international collaboration. Specifically, he defines three related steps that are needed, each requiring support of Member States.

Firstly, the Organization must work as one within and across its diverse areas of activity so that there is no overlap or competition between its constituent units. Creation of the post of a Deputy Secretary-General, establishment of the United Nations Development and Senior Management Groups, and inception of a Strategic Planning Unit and four sectoral Executive Committees are, in Mr Annan's view, the most important of his reform proposals. In a reference that recalled his earlier metaphor about the United Nations working together like a soccer team--which encouraged individual excellence to common purpose--rather than a rowing contingent where absolute synchronicity of style was essential, the Secretary-General was quick to observe that "acting as one does not mean moving in lock step. Nor does it imply denying the specific attributes of any component part."

`The second step would relax a number of the "rigidities with which the Organization is afflicted" and which are, in fact, mandated by Member States themselves. Suggesting a reconfiguration of the balance between the legislative bodies of the Organization (which comprise Member States) and the Secretary-General, he attributes the realm of these rigidities largely to reasons relating to the cold-war practice of bloc politics, which have inhibited the flexibility needed by the Secretariat to get its job done in the most cost-effective manner. Specific reform proposals include a streamlining of the agenda and deliberations of the General Assembly, a clear definition of when new mandates would end--the "sunset provision"--and, most important in the Secretary-General's view, a...