Economics & Inequality Retirement Security Education Health Care Homeland Security Election Reform Media & Politics International Affairs TCF Project Sites: Donate to TCF Join our Listserv  Taking Note Home About TCF News Room Join our Listserv Afghanistan 'Footprint' Helps Shape U.N. Reform     Email    Printer-Friendly Jeffrey Laurenti, The Century Foundation, 12/20/2004 Link to Article It was in Afghanistan in the 1980s that the U.N. began a quiet transformation from Cold War Greek chorus, left to rally world opinion from the sidelines, to an intermediary that actively negotiates, even between superpowers. It was on Afghanistan that the United States decided that benign neglect of a continuing civil war would lead to a politically more satisfying final solution than a U.N.-brokered all-party peace settlement. Copyright 2010 The Century Foundation. Privacy Policy NY Office: 41 East 70th Street—New York, New York—10021—Phone:212-535-4441—212-879-9197 DC Office: 1333 H Street, NW—10th Floor— Washington, D.C. 20005— Phone: 202-387-0400— Fax: 202-483-9430