Book Review: Jean-Marie Guéhenno, The Fog of Peace: A Memoir of International Peacekeeping in the 21st Century
| Published date | 01 November 2017 |
| Date | 01 November 2017 |
| Author | Teresa Lappe-Osthege |
| DOI | 10.1177/1478929917714964 |
| Subject Matter | Book ReviewsInternational Relations |
630 Political Studies Review 15(4)
UNEP are up to. The strategic play around
environmental issues is not easy to undo, as
governments still have some distance to travel
before endorsing the important concerns of the
non-governmental organisations (NGOs).
Jan-Erik Lane
(Public Policy Institute in Belgrade, Serbia)
© The Author(s) 2017
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DOI: 10.1177/1478929917718153
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The Fog of Peace: A Memoir of International
Peacekeeping in the 21st Century by Jean-
Marie Guéhenno. Washington, DC: The
Brookings Institution, 2015. 331pp., £19.50 (p/b),
ISBN 9780815726302
‘One needs a reliable compass to navigate
through the fog of peace’ (p. xvii), Jean-Marie
Guéhenno states in the prologue of this book.
By sharing his personal experiences and
insights as Under-Secretary General for UN
peacekeeping operations, Guéhenno seeks to
depict the moral dilemmas and diplomatic
challenges posed by violent conflicts. He aims
to contribute to the improvement of interna-
tional conflict prevention and resolution by
identifying and understanding past mistakes of
peacekeeping operations.
In this, at times very personal, recount of
his role in UN peacekeeping between 2000 and
2008, Guéhenno successfully combines critical
self-reflection with convincing academic rig-
our. Central to his argument is the view that the
UN has failed to adapt to the changing realities
of contemporary peacekeeping as being an
essentially moral and political undertaking.
His detailed accounts of the unfolding of vari-
ous crises on the international stage compel-
lingly draw a picture of the UN’s paralysis
stemming from internal disagreements, power
plays and lack of clear strategies at times when
precise mandates were most necessary.
Guéhenno manages to illuminate the hid-
den parallels and connections that enabled – or
hampered – political solutions to the crises that
unfolded in Afghanistan, Iraq, Georgia, Côte
d’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of the
Congo, Sudan, Lebanon, Kosovo, Haiti and
Syria. From disunity on the UN’s response to
Iraq that damaged the credibility of the Security
Council to navigating the risks of either failed
intervention or abstention that could enable
further mass atrocities in the DRC, Guéhenno’s
arguments draw their persuasive power from
his honest engagement with criticism and (per-
sonal) diplomatic failure.
However, his accounts tend to chronicle
political events in the corridors of the UN,
forcing the reader to search for his argument
buried in sometimes overwhelming detail.
Nonetheless, his insights as deputy to Kofi
Annan’s UN Envoy to Syria, negotiating
between government and rebel forces in 2012,
most compellingly illustrate the reasons for
failure and provide a rare glimpse of the dilem-
mas peacekeepers face on the ground.
The book speaks to those involved in the
field of peacekeeping, academics and practi-
tioners alike, as it illuminates the negative
pressures that globalisation inflicts on con-
temporary states, societies and international
institutions. Without a doubt, Guéhenno’s
ability to draw parallels between fundamen-
tally different conflicts and their impact on
the UN as an intergovernmental institution
are a most valuable contribution to under-
standing the failures and successes of con-
temporary peacekeeping.
Teresa Lappe-Osthege
(University of Sheffield)
© The Author(s) 2017
Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav
DOI: 10.1177/1478929917714964
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Global Tax Governance: What is Wrong
With It and How to Fix It by Peter Dietsch
and Thomas Rixen (eds). Colchester:
ECPR Press, 2016. 363pp., £65.00 (h/b), ISBN
9781785521263
Tax avoidance and tax evasion remain one of the
key global policy challenges. Rising inequality,
revenue losses and public salience in the face of
frequent scandals pressure policy-makers to
achieve international cooperation. However,
divergent national interests prevent states from
making thorough commitments, thus leaving
tax avoidance a basic element of the all-too-
positive assessments of free capital flows.
This handbook offers a multifaceted
approach to adequately conceive the problem
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