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Aspects of Peacekeeping

Edited by D. S. Gordon and F. H. Toase
Reviewed by By Eliot A. Cohen
March/April 2002
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Edited by D. S. Gordon and F. H. Toase
Frank Cass
2001
286 pp.
0714650404
$62.50

As recent events in Kabul revealed, the British have assumed a greater role in contemporary peacekeeping than the size of their military might have led one to expect. The reasons are complex, having much to do with imperial traditions that are both enduring and transmuted. This collection of papers, the product of a conference at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, shows that the British military-academic complex is thinking hard about the subject. This volume touches on the lessons of the Yugoslav conflict as well as broader issues such as the role of the United Nations, the legitimization of peacekeeping within traditional militaries (the subject of a particularly interesting essay by James Gow and Christopher Dandeker), and relations with nongovernmental organizations. No grand conclusions here, but the volume is evidence of serious thinking on a mission that most American officers and politicians would be quite happy to leave to others.

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