The UN Post-Kofi.

Birthdays are often moments to take stock and then change. However, the results of the UN's 50th anniversary in 1995 and the Millennium Summit in 2000 lead to profound skepticism about any major overhaul in September 2005 for the world organization's 60th anniversary. The agenda will advance modestly, but there is no evidence of Secretary-General Kofi Annan's 'fork in the road', the justification for the High-Level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change. Indeed, an interesting reversal of roles is taking place around the three main documents before member states-from the HLP, Millennium Project, and Secretary-General. Usually it is outside scholars who rant and rave about the untenable status quo, while practical folks in foreign ministries or international secretariats habitually point to geo-politics, throw cold water, and call for incremental changes instead. This time, the refrain from many diplomats, secretariat officials, and members of august commissions resembles Chicken Little's, and their hyperbolic rhetoric amounts to "it's now or never." Meanwhile, academics are scratching our heads and injecting some historical perspective into the Secretary-General's plea that "the UN must undergo the most sweeping overhaul in its 60-year history." It seems as many observers share the worst negative judgments of current multilateralism put forward by Washington's neo-cons. This presentation will take stock of the September 2005 Summit. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]