Secretary-General of the United Nations Kofi Annan said he thinks the United Nations Security Council will adopt a resolution requiring tighter weapons inspections in Iraq but not approving use of force as an immediate recourse should Baghdad fail to comply.

Annan made his predictions while speaking at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Friday in honor of the Sloan School of Managament’s 50th anniversary.

While the United States and Britain favor one resolution authorizing stricter weapons inspections and authorizing the use of force, France, backed by Russia and China, prefers a two-stage approach which would first ask Baghdad to comply with inspections without threatening the use of force. Annan said the Security Council is more likely to adopt the latter.

“I think the member-states want a two-stage approach: Send in the inspectors; if they get into trouble … come back and we will pass a second resolution,” Annan said.

The last time UN inspectors were in Iraq was in 1998 when they were forced to withdraw to allow for U.S. and British air strikes. The air strikes were in response to Iraq’s noncompliance with inspectors and their violation of a UN resolution requiring disarmament after Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990. Annan said future inspections will be more strict than previous ones.

“There is a sense that the disarmament regime will need to be strengthened,” Annan said. “The inspectors will need to be strengthened, so that we don’t repeat the errors of the past.”

Annan said he was “delighted” when President Bush approached the United Nations about Iraq and stressed he does not encourage a unilateral attack by the United States against Iraq.

“Any country when attacked has an inherent right to self-defense … but when a country decides to deal with a broader threat to international peace and security the approval and support of the Security Council is required,” Annan said.

The purpose of Annan’s speech was to discuss corporate responsibility. He called on American businesses to use their resources to improve living and working conditions in global communities. An alumnus of the Sloan School, Annan spoke to the packed auditorium of fellow alumni, stressing corporate responsibilities in the context of the global community.

“The benefits of globalization have been shared so unevenly,” Annan said.

“Developing countries have heard a lot of talk about free and fair trade, but seen far too little of it. Solutions to poverty, environmental degradation and other challenges can only be found if the private sector is involved.”

Businesses must work to help members of the global community, Annan said. Human well-being is crucial to global economic recovery and the subsequent successful functioning of global markets.

“Over the long run, human well-being can be dramatically advanced by well-functioning markets,” Annan said. “But markets themselves cannot be sustained if they do not ensure human well-being.”

Annan said businesses must alter the way they operate for the larger goal of creating a stable global market, even if it threatens their short term benefits.

“Sometimes, doing what is right — for example, eco-efficiency or creating decent work-place conditions — is in the immediate interest of business,” Annan said. “Sometimes, we must do what is right simply because not to do so would be wrong. And sometimes, we do what is right to help usher in a new day of new norms and new behaviors.”

Annan said a coalition composed of members of “the private sector, civil society, labor unions, NGOs, universities, foundations and individuals” must work together to rebuild trust in global markets, especially following the recent disclosure of several large-scale corporate scandals in the United States.

“Confidence in markets has been dealt a further blow with a series of corporate scandals in the United States and the gathering feeling that markets, by themselves, cannot respond to the real needs of society or provide the public goods that humankind needs to survive,” Annan said.

“Together, we can and must move from value to values, from shareholders to stakeholders, and from balance sheets to balanced development.”

Business schools must move beyond curriculum and management skills and teach future businessmen the importance of global citizenship, Annan said.

“Sloan is well placed to teach more than accounting and finance, and to help define the parameters of corporate citizenship,” Annan said.

The United Nations and international leaders are working to reduce hunger, provide access to safe drinking water and ensure universal primary education, Annan said, but he fears a lack of global cooperation will force global communities into isolation.

“Openness is the emerging hallmark of our time,” Annan said. “But we need to make it work. Otherwise, countries and peoples might retreat behind protectionism or, worst of all, reject global citizenship in favor of narrow concepts of national interest not at all appropriate for an interdependent world.”

International leaders agree that people, not states, should be the focus of policy-making, Annan said, but the international community needs people from the private, public and civil societies to help implement programs that protect human rights.

In order to foster involvement, Annan said he proposed a Global Compact initiative in 1999 asking businesses to “embrace nine universal principles in the areas of human rights, labor standards and the environment and to enact these principles within their spheres of influence.”

“[The Compact] has promoted the importance of universal values and encouraged investors to look harder at opportunities in the least developed countries, particularly in Africa,” Annan said. “The Compact has also created a learning forum — a worldwide academic network that examines case studies, trying to determine what works and what doesn’t.”

In response to Annan’s speech, MIT Professor Richard Locke said American businesses are already making strides toward becoming responsible citizens and cited Nike, a company which has received intense criticism for its treatment of employees, as an example. Locke said Nike stopped using toxic chemicals in the adhesives it uses to glue together parts of its footwear after receiving reports that its employees were falling ill.

“In response to certainly illnesses that the employees were gaining and a lot of criticism, they did a lot of research into water based solvents and water based adhesives which now they have shift completely over to,” Locke said. “I think that it’s great that a corporation is shifting its policies to be more responsive to the health of its workforce and to the environment.”

Companies are slowly learning the benefits of becoming responsible citizens, Locke said, but it is up to members of universities nd members of the private and public sector to push them toward reform.

“We have to try to convince managers to get away from a very narrow idea of what constitutes good business and try to basically educate them and show them that they can do good business and do it in a responsible way,” Locke said.