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Kofi Annan is considered to be one of the greatest Secretary-Generals of the United Nation, and many view him as the world's most prominent diplomat today. Besides leading the U.N. from 1997 to 2006, Annan was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2001. He presently has been trying to have the Annan Six Point Plan implemented in Syria to end the bloodshed. This has involved flying around the world to meet with the leaders of Syria, Russian, United States, European Union, Arab League, and Iran, to end the blood-letting.

Difficult and vital questions have inspired the extraordinary life of Secretary-General Kofi Annan; a life deeply devoted to the betterment of our global community. This will be a very rare and special evening where Annan shares with eloquence and unprecedented candor, his unique role and unparalleled perspective on decades of global politics.

In Annan's Nobel Peace Prize Lecture, he said "Today's real borders are not between nations, but between powerful and powerless, free and fettered, privileged and humiliated."

During the build-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Annan called on the United States and the United Kingdom not to invade without the support of the United Nations. In a September 2004 interview on the BBC, when questioned about the legal authority for the invasion, Annan said he believed it was not in conformity with the UN charter and was illegal.

Annan and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad disagreed sharply on Iran's nuclear program, on an Iranian exhibition of cartoons mocking the Holocaust, and on the International Conference to Review the Global Vision of the Holocaust, an Iranian Holocaust denial conference in 2006. During a visit to Iran instigated by continued Iranian uranium enrichment, Annan said "I think the tragedy of the Holocaust is an undeniable historical fact and we should really accept that fact and teach people what happened in World War II and ensure it is never repeated.

Annan supported sending a UN peacekeeping mission to Darfur, Sudan. He has been a strong proponent and continues to work with several Arab and Muslim countries on women's rights, and separately on the fight against HIV/AIDS.

During Annan's farewell address to world leaders gathered at the UN headquarters in New York, he stated that there are three major problems of "an unjust world economy, world disorder, and widespread contempt for human rights and the rule of law", which he believes "have not resolved, but sharpened" during his time as Secretary-General.

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