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　If a computer were to design the perfect U.N. Secretary-General, he or she would look something like this: African born; European and American educated, with decades of service in the U.N. system; married to a European; and possessing a quiet charisma and calm authority as chaos arises.
　　That the U.N. in 1996 found such a person to restore its sense of direction and purpose was a near miracle. But out of the U.N.’s failures in Bosnia, Somalia and Rwanda came Kopi Annan, the career international civil servant who had participated in these disasters yet somehow survived and learned from them.
　　www.examｗ.comToday Annan is in the middle of his second term. His task is not finished, and the U.N. is still far from what it should be. But Annan has tested the limits of the job, accumulating more authority-one cannot use the word power, given the constraints the U.N. system places on him-than any of his predecessors.
　　His complex relationship with the U.S. government is little understood. When Annan takes positions in public that are displeasing to the bush administration, it unleashes its attack dogs. Yet when administration officials found their policies in Iraq floundering, they asked the U.N. for help. Some observers told Annan that he should responsibility was to the cause of stabilizing Iraq. He began to work toward the decisive date of June 30, when the u.s. will hand over control to Iraqi authorities and an uncertain situation will prevail determined by factors way beyond his, or anyone else’s, ability to control. But it is Annan’s destiny to be handed the very worst problems after they have been unsuccessfully addressed by others. Anyone who knows him knows he wades into such problems with his usual blend of courage, self-control, modesty and optimism.
　　參考譯文：
　　如果讓電腦來(lái)設(shè)計(jì)一個(gè)完美的聯(lián)合國(guó)秘書長(zhǎng)，他/她應(yīng)該是這樣的：出生在非洲;在歐洲和美國(guó)接受教育;在聯(lián)合國(guó)工作十年以上;配偶是歐洲人;出現(xiàn)混亂局面時(shí)能保持冷靜、富有領(lǐng)導(dǎo)魅力的權(quán)威人士。
　　1996年聯(lián)合國(guó)找到了這樣一個(gè)人來(lái)恢復(fù)它的方向感和目的性，這簡(jiǎn)直就是個(gè)奇跡。聯(lián)合國(guó)在波斯尼亞、索馬里和盧旺達(dá)的行動(dòng)失敗后，科菲.安南卻脫穎而出。身為國(guó)際公務(wù)員的他對(duì)參與了這一系列的空難性行動(dòng)，幸存下來(lái)，并且從中學(xué)到很多東西。
　　現(xiàn)在，安南的第二任期已過(guò)一半。然而，他的任務(wù)還沒(méi)有圓滿完成，聯(lián)合國(guó)離其理想狀態(tài)還很遠(yuǎn)。但安南已經(jīng)體驗(yàn)到了他這份工作的局限性——因?yàn)槁?lián)合國(guó)體制對(duì)他的限制，他不能利用言語(yǔ)力量，然而他卻比他的前任們積累了更多的權(quán)威性。
　　他與美國(guó)政府的復(fù)雜關(guān)系鮮為人知，當(dāng)安南在公眾面前的表現(xiàn)不能取悅布什政府的時(shí)候，美國(guó)就會(huì)攻擊他。反過(guò)來(lái)，當(dāng)美國(guó)政府官員發(fā)現(xiàn)他們的政策在伊拉克舉步維艱的時(shí)候，他們卻向聯(lián)合國(guó)尋求幫助。有些觀察家建議安南不要幫助美國(guó)擺脫困境，但是安南明白，自己最大責(zé)任是促成伊拉克局勢(shì)的穩(wěn)定。他開始朝6月30號(hào)這個(gè)決定性的日子努力，美國(guó)將會(huì)在這天向伊拉克政府移交政權(quán)，這將千萬(wàn)動(dòng)蕩局面。不管是安南還是其他任何人，在伊拉克問(wèn)題上的成功與否都不會(huì)取決于他個(gè)人的控制能力。但是，安南注定要處理這些棘手的問(wèn)題，而這些問(wèn)題是由別人的失敗造成的。所有熟悉安南的人都知道他將帶著他一貫的勇氣、自我控制能力、謙恭和樂(lè)觀來(lái)介入這一難題。