The Evolution of UN Peacekeeping: Case Studies and Comparative Analysis
Traditionally trained students of national security scramble these days to learn about U.N. peacekeeping, a subject to which they paid scant attention during the heyday of the Cold War. They would do well to look at this volume of edited case studies, designed as a textbook for advanced undergraduate or graduate students. The book deals with general U.N. issues (including their financial aspects), then explores peacekeeping in the Middle East, South Asia and the Western hemisphere. Although Durch and his colleagues suggest that the United Nations may turn into "a global overwatch on government," they do not shirk from pointing out the many difficulties U.N. peacekeeping operations have encountered, including insufficient resources from member governments, bad faith among the parties served, and occasional incompetence on the part of the blue-helmeted soldiery in between. Amply footnoted and festooned with charts, maps and tables, this volume provides a very solid introduction to a peculiar but growing type of military operation.
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