Nigeria, Nov. 26 -- The world was in turmoil in the mid 2000s. Nature had visited humanity with one of the most devastating storms in contemporary times. Hurricane Katrina which made a landfall in New Orleans, United States, claimed 1,392 lives and displaced a million people.

But if humans had no chance against such natural disasters, it should at least do something about man-made ones. These included renewed wars in Sri Lanka and Colombia, rising violence in Nepal, Chechnya and Iraq.

Then, there were talks in the United Nations, UN, about appointing a Special Envoy that could intervene to bring warring sides to the negotiation table in some of the most intractable conflicts in the world. It needed somebody with tact, patience, knowledg...