Book Reviews : United Nations - Divided World: The UN's Role in International Relations edited by Adam Roberts and Benedict Kingsbury. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1988. 287pp. £27.50. International Institutions at Work edited by Paul Taylor and A.J.R. Groom. London: Pinter Publishers, 1988. 245pp. £27.50
| Author | Douglas Williams |
| Date | 01 May 1989 |
| Published date | 01 May 1989 |
| DOI | 10.1177/004711788900900509 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
452
backed
by
an
administrative
organisation.
Urquhart
may
have
overplayed
his
own
role
in
the
Congo
operation,
but
his
deep
admiration
for
Hammarskj6ld’s
management
of
this
crucial
test
of
the
UN’s
political
potential
was
as
genuine
as
his
distress
at
Hammarski6ld’s
sudden
death.
He
also
admired
the
’quiet,
unobtrusive
and
unostentatious’
U
Thant,
a
practicing
Buddhist,
whom
he
credits
with
negotiating
an
initiative
to
end
the
Vietnamese
war,
which
four
years
later
was
taken
up
by
Kissinger,
and
who
deserved
more
public
recognition
for his
role in
the
Cuban
crisis
and
the
India/Pakistan
war
in
1965.
He
pinpoints,
however,
U
Thant’s
mistake,
on
the
eve
of
the
Six
Day
War,
in
not
summoning
the
Security
Council
under
Article
99
of
the
Charter,
to
consider
Egypt’s
insistence
on
the
withdrawal
of UNEF
as
a
threat
to
international
peace
and
security.
But
he
defends
him
against
the
charge
of
timorousness
over
Brezhnev’s
invasion
of
Czechoslovakia
in
1968.
It
is
always
easy
to
make
a
scapegoat
of
the
Secretary-General
when
the
hard
fact
is
that
the
Security
Council
cannot
act
in
a
case
against
one
of
its
permanent
members.
Shortly
before
U
Thant’s
retirement,
Urquhart
was
promoted
Under
Secretary-
General
for
Special
Political
Affairs,
which
meant
that
he
was
responsible
for
peace-
keeping
operations
in
Cyprus
(UNFICYP)
and
for
Ralph
Bunche’s
other
similar
tasks.
He
was
in
this
top
post
when
Kurt
Waldheim
became
Secretary-General
in
1971.
Urquhart
describes
Waldheim
as
an
’energetic,
ambitious
mediocrity’
and
claims
that
he
stood
up
for
Hammarskj6ld
and
U
Thant
when Waldheim
criticised
their
perfor-
mances.
Waldheim
was
re-elected
for
a
second
term
in
December
1976
after
revealing
an ’insatiable
thirst
for
public
office’ ,
and
Urquhart
gives
further
embarrassing
evidence
of
his
search
for
public
recognition.
He
accompanied
Waldheim
on
many
of
his
official
visits,
which
results
in
a
series
of
sharply
drawn
pen
portraits
of
such
disparate
public
figures
as
the
Shah
of
Iran,
Pik
Botha,
Anwar
Sadat
and
Margaret
Thatcher
who
’combined
the
characteristics
of
La
Pasionaria,
the
girls
of
St
Trinians
and
Mrs
Miniver’ .
After
the
UN’s
merciful
avoidance
of Waldheim’s
third
term,
Urquhart
speaks
well
of Perez
de
Cuellar,
who
became
Secretary-
General
in
1982,
and
in
stark
contrast
to
his
predecessor
was
uninterested
in his
public
image.
Most
of Urquhart’s
time
during
the
next
four
years
was
devoted
to
his
favourite
job:
peacekeeping
operations
in
Cyprus,
South
Lebanon
(UNIFIL),
the
Middle
East
and
Namibia.
This
gives
him
the
opportu-
nity
to
applaud
the
devotion
of
the
multi-national
UN
peacekeeping
forces
which
have
only
now
belatedly
been
recognised
in
the
1987
Nobel
Peace
Prize.
But
the
latest
developments
in
the
Iran-Iraq
armistice,
in
Namibia
and
the
Soviet
withdrawal
from
Afghanistan
provide
more
hopeful
omens
for
the
future
of
the
United
Nations
than
when
Urquhart
retired
in
early
1986.
NIGEL
CLIVE
United
Nations -
Divided
World:
The
UN’s
Role
in
International Relations
edited
by
Adam
Roberts
and
Benedict
Kingsbury.
Oxford:
Clarendon
Press,
1988.
287pp.
£27.50.
International
Institutions
at
Work
edited
by
Paul
Taylor
and
A.J.R.
Groom.
London:
Pinter
Publishers,
1988.
245pp.
£27.50.
These
two
excellent
books
both
supplement
and
complement
each
other.
Their
pur-
poses
and
the
audiences
at
which
they
are
aimed
overlap
but
are
not
identical.
Only
one
contributor,
M.
Bertrand,
appears
in
both
and
even
then
writing
from
a
different
point
in
time
(i.e.
before
and
after
retirement).
More
importantly,
the
majority
of
those
writing
in
International
Institutions
are
academics
aiming
primarily
at
students
of
international
relations
at
universities
and
colleges.
(The
contributors
are
P.
Willetts,
A.
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