In the eye of the storm

Dr Kurt Waldheim has been at the centre of most international crises in recent years, including the Yom Kippur War and the Lebanon tragedy, the Turkish invasion of Cyprus and Russian invasion of Afghanistan, anarchy in the Persian Gulf and barbarity in South-East Asia. As Secretary General of the United Nations from 1972 until 1982, he mediated and kept the peace in many trouble areas, succoured refugees, obtained the release of hostages and political prisoners, humoured the great powers and encouraged the small.

An inveterate traveller, Dr Waldheim has met the heads of state and government of most of the 158 member countries of the UN. He assesses with vivid insights the influence and interventions of Krushchev, Breshnev and Gromyko; Nixon, Carter and Reagan; Margaret Thatcher and Helmut Kohl; Tito and Castro; Deng Hsiao-Ping and the African leaders.

He presided over the transformation of the UN from the dominance of the war-time Allies who were its founders to the new majority of Third World nations which now determines many of the UN's attitudes. His solutions to the conflict between the industrialized North and poverty-stricken South are compelling but controversial.

As a former Austrian Foreign Minister and presidential candidate, Dr Waldheim brings formidable authority to his analysis of the world's current condition and makes an impassioned appeal for the mitigation of selfish national sovereignty in the interest of a strengthened UN Organisation and more constructive international cooperation.