United Nations leader Kofi Annan travels the world visiting areas of some of the worst violence and cruelty in human history. Few men have the responsibility to face such evil worldwide. Fewer still must attempt to find a solution to such complex and insurmountable problems.

When Annan prays, he often wonders about man's cruelty to man. "I'm still struggling with evil," he says. "I still don't understand how there can be so much evil. . . . You look at the impact; you see young people who have no hope."

Annan is most puzzled when he comes face to face with evil. Recounting his meetings with former Serbian leader and indicted war criminal Slobodan Milosevic, he says: "Milosevic will talk about the days when he was a banker here in New York City. He speaks English, sounds like a rational, reasonable person, and yet he is capable of all sorts of acts. How do they do it? How does someone behave like such a normal human being and suddenly turn so evil? . . .

"Suddenly the moral instinct alone does not answer. You are on your own, trying to find a direction in a world in which there are no marked paths. You are sitting across from pure evil. What do you do now?"