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The United Nations has been called everything from "the best hope of mankind" to "irrelevant" and "obsolete." With this much-needed introduction to the UN, Jussi Hanhimäki engages the current debate over the organizations effectiveness as he provides a clear understanding of how it was originally conceived, how it has come to its present form, and how it must confront new challenges in a rapidly changing world. After a brief history of the United Nations and its predecessor, the League of Nations, the author examines the UN's successes and failures as a guardian of international peace and security, as a promoter of human rights, as a protector of international law, and as an engineer of socio-economic development. Hanhimäki stresses that the UN's greatest problem has been the impossibly wide gap between its ambitions and capabilities. In the area of international security, for instance, the UN has to settle conflicts--be they between or within states--without offending the national sovereignty of its member states, and without being sidelined by strong countries, as happened in the 2003 intervention of Iraq. Hanhimäki also provides a clear accounting of the UN and its various arms and organizations (such as UNESCO and UNICEF), and he offers a critical overview of how effective it has been in the recent crises in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia, for example--and how likely it is to meet its overall goals in the future. The United Nations, Hanhimäki concludes, is an indispensable organization that has made the world a better place. But it is also a deeply flawed institution, in need of constant reform.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
TREMENDOUSLY INFORMED -- AND INFORMATIVE
6 April 2012
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
A tremendously informative -- and informed -- overview of the United Nations system. This is an overview that emphasizes both the history and sprawling expanse of the UN as a checkered but inter-linked system. It avoids the journalistic fallacy of personalizing either the Office of Secretary General or the institution itself, and is rock-solid on important details and relevant problems. It accepts the UN as a necessary world institution without in any sense ignoring its yawning structural problems. Highly recommended. I will use it as the basic introductory text for my undergraduate "The Future of the United Nations" class at university. By the way, as the series title would suggest...it is pointedly concise. In an age of wasted Internet and Blog words...BRAVO!
Nice, short overview of the UN, its structure, and its actions
27 May 2012
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
The title says it all -- this book's a short summary of the history behind the UN, the structure of the UN, the challenges facing it, and the avenues for future reform. It's a reasonably short read, although not quite one to breeze through, acronym-laden as it is (pretty much by necessity, given how the UN works).
As the author acknowledges, he's writing the book as a UN apologist. Yet at the same time, he doesn't hesitate to discuss the many times and ways the UN's fallen short of its original lofty goals. I tend to think it won't change many people's minds about the value or futility of the UN (it doesn't seem to have been written with an explicit goal of that sort), but at least it'll leave people better informed as to what the UN does and doesn't do, effectively and incompetently.
As the author acknowledges, he's writing the book as a UN apologist. Yet at the same time, he doesn't hesitate to discuss the many times and ways the UN's fallen short of its original lofty goals. I tend to think it won't change many people's minds about the value or futility of the UN (it doesn't seem to have been written with an explicit goal of that sort), but at least it'll leave people better informed as to what the UN does and doesn't do, effectively and incompetently.
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Competent but sentimental
4 April 2012
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
A good overview of the UN system, but frankly over-sentimental and unrealistic in its opinions of the UN and some of its leading lights. The author seems to approach the UN with an almost religious reverence, which I suppose might be excusable as it is part of the standard culture of middle class academics worldwide. But a more "freethinking" frame of mind would have been welcome.
I can't help thinking that this book should really have been written by some-one with meaningful inside experience of the UN, who would be more likely to see the substance and not only the form.
But - worth buying as a useful and brief overview.
I can't help thinking that this book should really have been written by some-one with meaningful inside experience of the UN, who would be more likely to see the substance and not only the form.
But - worth buying as a useful and brief overview.
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