Background
A Coptic Christian, Boutros-Ghali rose in the foreign policy administration of Egypt by supporting the negotiations with Israel undertaken by Anwar al-Sadat in 1977, and later the policies of Hosni Mubarak. In 1991, when Javier PérezPerez de CuéllarCuellar was concluding his second term as secretary-general, the Organization of African Unity pressed for an African to be the next, sixth, secretary-general. Boutros-Ghali, a North African sympathetic to the United States, Europe, and both sides of the peace process in the Middle East, was acceptable to the West and just marginally acceptable to sub-Saharan Africa; he was elected on a single ballot and installed in early 1992.
In his first months in office, Boutros-Ghali analyzed the UN's role in conflict and created the concept of "peace enforcement" or "peace-building" separate from "peacekeeping." He interpreted peace enforcement as not requiring the consent of all parties to a conflict, even if the conflict was within a sovereign nation. This doctrine served to uphold an assertive U.S.-led action in Somalia. However, it was left quite in abeyance in the former Yugoslavia, where the UN proved incapable of halting genocidal Serbian aggression against a UN member, Bosnia-Hercegovina.
Having announced he would remain in office for only one five-year term, Boutros-Ghali had visited 19 countries by the middle of 1993 and was overseeing 13 separate peace-keeping operations.
