United Nations Books

Outrage: How Illegal Immigration, the United Nations, Congressional Ripoffs, Student Loan Overcharges, Tobacco Companies, Trade Protection, and Drug Companies Are Ripping Us Off . . . and

Dick Morris, Eileen Mcgann

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Editorial Review:

Dick Morris and Eileen McGann are outrage—and you should be, too!

• Half of all illegal immigrants came into this country legally—and we have no way of knowing they're still here!
• Congressmen are putting their wives on their campaign payrolls!
• The UN is a cover for massive corruption!
• Drug companies pay off doctors to write scrips—whether we need them or not!
• Teachers unions block the firing of bad teachers—and battle against higher education standards!
• Katrina victims are being stiffed by their insurance companies!
• Special interests cost our consumers $45 billion through trade quotas that save only a handful of jobs!

Unaware of these abuses? It's not surprising since the mainstream media don't talk about them. Too many powerful people are working very hard to cover them up. But in Outrage, New York Times bestselling authors Dick Morris and Eileen McGann give you the cold, hard facts you won't read about anywhere else—and offer tough, common-sense proposals on how to fight the special interests of the left and right . . . so we can start making these outrageous inequities things of the past!

The Responsibility to Protect: Ending Mass Atrocity Crimes Once and for All

Gareth Evans

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After the Holocaust, the world vowed it would never again stand by and permit such heinous crimes against humanity. Yet many subsequent atrocities have gone unchecked, all over the world: from the killing fields of Cambodia, to Rwanda, and to Srebrenica. The bloody list continues to grow, led by the unfolding nightmare in Darfur. How and why were the world's best intentions derailed, and what can be done today to put these efforts back on track? The "responsibility to protect: - R2P for short - was unanimously embraced at the UN World Summit in 2005. The heart of this new international norm is the belief that if sovereign governments fail to protect their own people from mass atrocity crimes, then responsibility shifts to the wider international community to take whatever action is appropriate, including (in extreme cases) the use of force. The world cannot, and will not, just stand by. Evens spells out the steps needed to make R2P work in practice and clarifies the misunderstandings, real or contrived, which persist about its scope and limits. He emphasizes the need for preventive action, and for preferring assistance and persuasion to coercion, but he also makes clear when it is right to fight. The book is enlivened throughout by real world examples, analyses of current events, and assessments drawn from the author's own vast experience.

Surrender Is Not an Option: Defending America at the United Nations

John Bolton

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With no-holds-barred candor, the former ambassador to the United Nations takes readers behind the scenes at the UN and the U.S. State Department and reveals why his efforts to defend American interests and reform the UN resulted in controversy. He also shows how the U.S. can lead the way to a more realistic global security arrangement for the twenty-first century and identifies the next generation of threats to America.

In this revealing memoir, John Bolton recounts his appointment in 2005 as Ambassador to the United Nations, his headline-making Senate confirmation battle, and his sixteen-month tenure at the United Nations. Bolton offers keen insight into such international crises as North Korea's nuclear test, Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons, the genocide in Darfur, the negotiation that produced the controversial end of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, and more. Chronicling both his successes and frustrations in taking a hard line against weapons-of-mass-destruction proliferators, terrorists, and rogue states such as North Korea and Iran, he also exposes the operational inadequacies that hinder the UN's effectiveness in international diplomacy and its bias against Israel and the United States. At home, he criticizes the bureaucratic inertia in the U.S. State Department that can undermine presidential policy.

This fascinating chronicle of the career of one of America's outstanding statesmen who has fought to preserve American sovereignty and strength at home and abroad now contains a new afterword, "Challenges for the Next President."

Eyewitness to a Genocide: The United Nations and Rwanda

Michael Barnett

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Why was the UN a bystander during the Rwandan genocide? Do its sins of omission leave it morally responsible for the hundreds of thousands of dead? Michael Barnett, who worked at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations from 1993 to 1994, covered Rwanda for much of the genocide. Based on his first-hand experiences, archival work, and interviews with many key participants, he reconstructs the history of the UN’s involvement in Rwanda. In the weeks leading up to the genocide, the author documents, the UN was increasingly aware or had good reason to suspect that Rwanda was a site of crimes against humanity. Yet it failed to act. Barnett argues that its indifference was driven not by incompetence or cynicism but rather by reasoned choices cradled by moral considerations. Employing a novel approach to ethics in practice and in relationship to international organizations, Barnett offers an unsettling possibility: the UN culture recast the ethical commitments of well-intentioned individuals, arresting any duty to aid at the outset of the genocide. Barnett argues that the UN bears some moral responsibility for the genocide. Particularly disturbing is his observation that not only did the UN violate its moral responsibilities, but also that many in New York believed that they were "doing the right thing" as they did so. Barnett addresses the ways in which the Rwandan genocide raises a warning about this age of humanitarianism and concludes by asking whether it is possible to build moral institutions.

The Parliament of Man: The Past, Present, and Future of the United Nations (Vintage)

Paul Kennedy

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A Tour d'Horizon of the UN's Successes and Failures 5 out of 5 stars.
11 of 11 people found this review helpful.

In 1945, in San Francisco, when the UN Charter was written, the victors of the Second World War were looking to create an international body that would guarantee global security and prevent another conflagration like the one they had just experienced. The lines from the Tennyson poem "Locksley Hall:" "Till the war-drum throbbed no longer, and the battle flags were furl'd / In the Parliament of Man, Federation of the World" were carried by President Truman in his back pocket when he gave his famous address calling for a United Nations.

Paul Kennedy, Yale historian and author of "The Rise and Fall of Great Powers," reminds us that the internal contradictions that exist at the UN today were present at creation, so to speak. The UN was essentially created by the victors of World War II. The General Assembly, which at the time was made up of 49 members, reflected the internationalism of this venture, each member was allowed one vote regardless of size or power. The Security Council, on the other hand, made up of the five permanent members ( the US, China, Britain, France, and the Soviet Union) were the only members allowed the veto reflecting the realism of the founders.

Essentially the UN is no more than what the great powers want it to be. It is disingenuous for the American right to attack the UN for being weak and ineffectual when they need it because it was designed to be so. In the case of Rwanda and Bosnia, the UN stood by helplessly while thousands were massacred; this was because no great power stepped forward in time to stop these atrocities. Likewise, if a great power decides to act unilaterally such as the US in Iraq or China in Tibet, there is nothing the UN can do. In the politcal and military realm the UN is primarily a tool for the great powers.

Any reform of the UN Charter, such as creating a standing army or increasing the number of permanent members of the Security Council, must be approved by all five of the existing permanent members. Over the years there have been endless commissions, reports, and proposals calling for structural reform at the UN, but none have succeeded in persuading the current five to change the status quo. One must concede that if the current five cannot agree on reform, it would be even more difficult for a larger group.

Kennedy points out that "there are in practice many UN's." Most citizens of great power countries think of the UN only in it's peacekeeping and peace-enforcing capacity - a capacity in which in does not have much power. Most of the developing world is more interested in the UN's "soft power," dealing with human rights, poverty alleviation, refugees, and public health. In these areas, UN efforts have met with some success. These people working through the UN and other NGO's have been instrumental in creating an international civil society, which have greatly contributed to global security and well-being.

Only a few years ago during the invasion of Iraq, American conservatives declared the UN useless and irrelevant. Recently, however, with the crisis in Lebanon and the nuclear stand-off with Iran, one great power after another is going to the UN with another resolution. Inspite of all it's shortcomings, it is still the only global forum for conflict resolution and burden-sharing.

In the last part of this book, Kennedy asks whether the UN can remake itself to reflect the realities of the 21st century. The answer lies in how much power the great powers are willing to relinquish. Globalization is rapidly creating a world that is more multilayered and interconnected. Will the UN be able to keep pace with these changes or will the world pass it by? Kennedy is an optimist.

Editorial Review:

The Parliament of Man is the first definitive history of the United Nations, from one of America's greatest living historians.

Distinguished scholar Paul Kennedy, author of the bestselling The Rise and Fall of Great Powers, gives us a thorough and timely account that explains the UN's roots and functions while also casting an objective eye on its effectiveness and its prospects for success in meeting the challenges that lie ahead. Kennedy shows the UN for what it is: fallible, human-based, often dependent on the whims of powerful national governments or the foibles of individual administrators—yet also utterly indispensable. With his insightful grasp of six decades of global history, Kennedy convincingly argues that "it is difficult to imagine how much more riven and ruinous our world of six billion people would be if there had been no UN."

The United Nations and Changing World Politics

Thomas G Weiss, David P. Forsythe, Roger A. Coate, KELLY-KATE PEASE

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With updates throughout, this newly revised fifth edition serves as the definitive text for courses dealing with the United Nations. Built around three critical themes in international relations-international peace and security, human rights and humanitarian affairs, and building peace through sustainable development-The United Nations and Changing World Politics, fifth edition, guides students through the complexity of politics and history of the UN. Students of all levels will learn what the UN is, how it operates, and what its relationships are with the universe of external actors and institutions, from sovereign states to the plethora of nongovernmental and intergovernmental organizations now playing important roles in world politics. This new edition is fully revised to take into account recent events, including the aftermath of September 11th and the war on terrorism, the war in Iraq, the first deliberations of the International Criminal Court, and the largest-ever world summit on the occasion of the UN’s sixtieth anniversary.

The United Nations in the Twenty-First Century (Dilemmas in World Politics)

Karen A Mingst, Margaret P Karns

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The third edition of this popular text focuses on major events since 2000, including 9/11 and the war against terrorism, the Iraq War's effect on the UN's relevance, and the Millennium Development Goals. Thoroughly revised throughout, the text also has a new chapter on human security issues that encompasses environmental concerns and global health.

Taking Rights Seriously

Ronald Dworkin

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What is law? What is it for? How should judges decide novel cases when the statutes and earlier decisions provide no clear answer? Do judges make up new law in such cases, or is there some higher law in which they discover the correct answer? Must everyone always obey the law? If not, when is a citizen morally free to disobey?

A renowned philosopher enters the debate surrounding these questions. Clearly and forcefully, Ronald Dworkin argues against the "ruling" theory in Anglo-American law-legal positivism and economic utilitarianism and asserts that individuals have legal rights beyond those explicitly laid down and that they have political and moral rights against the state that are prior to the welfare of the majority.

Mr. Dworkin criticizes in detail the legal positivists' theory of legal rights, particularly H. L. A. Hart's well-known version of it. He then develops a new theory of adjudication, and applies it to the central and politically important issue of cases in which the Supreme Court interprets and applies the Constitution. Through an analysis of Rawls's theory of justice, he argues that fundamental among political rights is the right of each individual to the equal respect and concern of those who govern him. He offers a theory of compliance with the law designed not simply to answer theoretical questions about civil disobedience, but to function as a guide for citizens and officials. Finally, Professor Dworkin considers the right to liberty, often thought to rival and even pre-empt the fundamental right to equality. He argues that distinct individual liberties do exist, but that they derive, not from some abstract right to liberty as such, but from the right to equal concern and respect itself. He thus denies that liberty and equality are conflicting ideals.

Ronald Dworkin's theory of law and the moral conception of individual rights that underlies it have already made him one of the most influential philosophers working in this area. This is the first publication of these ideas in book form.

An Insider's Guide to the UN

Linda Fasulo

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Total reviews: 19 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Clear and comprehensive, but biased 4 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

The book offers a clear explanation of the United Nations' structure. it's a great book for the beginners, people who are just starting to learn about the Organization. A must-read for the Model UN delegates and for those young idealists considering to apply for a UN job.

At the same time, the book is touching on the important issues in the debates about the UN as a whole; for instance, Fasulo defends the UN being slow and inefficient during the 1990s genocides. Touch questions of UN finances and sponsorship are raised. The book reminds of the role of individuals in the system; the chapters on the Secretary-General are especially interesting.

The only downside of the book is its bias towards the US. Fasulo is overstating the role of the United States in the work of the UN, without considering the role of other nations as profoundly. The book is aimed at the American reader and may leave a foreigner questioning many Fasulo's points.

Editorial Review:

The United Nations increasingly finds itself at the center of world events in an age of rapid globalization. Now, more than ever, it is imperative that we understand its structure and functions. In this highly readable book, a prominent news correspondent at the UN provides a colorful introduction to its activities and goals.
UN correspondent Linda Fasulo draws on her own observations as well as on the insights of other individuals who have been active in the UN, including US ambassadors Richard Holbrooke, Madeleine Albright, and John Negroponte. She explains how the UN came into existence, what governing principles guide its operation, and what it is like to be a participant. She describes the organization, responsibilities, and often-tense politics of the Security Council. Surveying the many humanitarian, crime-fighting, and peacekeeping programs of the UN, Fasulo concludes that there are important reasons for Americans to give the United Nations their support.

Making War and Building Peace: United Nations Peace Operations

Michael W. Doyle, Nicholas Sambanis

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Making War and Building Peace examines how well United Nations peacekeeping missions work after civil war. Statistically analyzing all civil wars since 1945, the book compares peace processes that had UN involvement to those that didn't. Michael Doyle and Nicholas Sambanis argue that each mission must be designed to fit the conflict, with the right authority and adequate resources. UN missions can be effective by supporting new actors committed to the peace, building governing institutions, and monitoring and policing implementation of peace settlements. But the UN is not good at intervening in ongoing wars. If the conflict is controlled by spoilers or if the parties are not ready to make peace, the UN cannot play an effective enforcement role. It can, however, offer its technical expertise in multidimensional peacekeeping operations that follow enforcement missions undertaken by states or regional organizations such as NATO. Finding that UN missions are most effective in the first few years after the end of war, and that economic development is the best way to decrease the risk of new fighting in the long run, the authors also argue that the UN's role in launching development projects after civil war should be expanded.