This fascinating study examines the dynamic process through which the Clinton administration developed a policy towards UN peace support operations. The author addresses the fundamental question: what factors influenced the shift in US policy towards the United Nations and its peace support operations and which factors were clearly dominant?
Based on primary sources and interviews with political personalities and officials, the author examines four main factors which shaped the development of policy: the Executive branch, the bureaucracies (the State Department and Department of Defense),...

As the 1990s place greater demands on the UN, this inspiring biography shows how Hammarskjold perfected the active but quiet diplomacy that proved successful in a series of seemingly hopeless situations, from the Suez Crisis to Indochina, and how he stood up for principle against the greatest powers.

How can peace be encouraged and sustained in a violent world? For nearly half a century at the United Nations, ultimately as Under Secretary-General for Special Political Affairs, Brian Urquhart wrestled with this problem at its front lines. Managing the United Nations' peacekeeping operations in the world's hot spots--the Congo in the aftermath of Patrice Lumumba's assassination, Cyprus at the bloodiest moment of conflict between Greek and Turkish Cypriots, Kashmir, and, through the tragic cycle of four wars, the Middle East--he has tested the limits, and the possibilities, of peacekeeping...