Review: The Invincible Quest
| Author | Douglas Goold |
| Published date | 01 March 2008 |
| Date | 01 March 2008 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070200806300117 |
| Subject Matter | Review |
| International Journal | Autumn 2007 | 215 |
| Reviews |
excuses for their collective failings and inadequacies. Indeed, he notes that
Boutros-Ghali often insisted that, “one of the functions of the UN was to act
as the scapegoat for the mistakes of member states” (311).
What he fails to acknowledge, however, but as his book makes clear, is
that the reverse is also true. Gharekhan describes many instances in which
the secretariat effectively scapegoats the council, as if to say, “because we
know they are a perfidious, spineless, and unimaginative lot, unlikely to act
on our wise counsel, it is dangerous and counterproductive to annoy them
by placing before the Council ideas and proposals that would only cause
Council members further embarrassment and—not incidentally—to dis-
trust and disparage us even more.”
Towards the end of the book, Gharekhan notes that “we the peoples”
have “hardly anything to do with the manner in which ‘their’ United
Nations functions or in which ‘their’ Security Council discharges its man-
date of preserving peace and security.” And he resignedly concludes that “to
expect anything more might be natural and legitimate but it is not realistic”
(310). Yet despite all this, he remains “a firm believer in the relevance of the
United Nations to the contemporary world,” (175) as, indeed, do I.
Robert R. Fowler/Graduate School of Public and International Affairs,
University of Ottawa
THE INVINCIBLE QUEST
The Life of Richard Milhous Nixon
Conrad Black
Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 2007. 1059pp, $45.00 cloth (ISBN 978-0-
7710-1123-8)
Ever since Boswell completed his famous biography of Johnson more than
200 years ago, it has been fascinating to consider the relationship between
biographers and their subjects. Why did the author choose the subject he or
she did? Is the biographer sympathetic, not so sympathetic, or downright
hostile? Does the biographer capture the spirit of the subject, and under-
stand what makes him or her tick? Finally, does the published work tell us
almost as much about the biographer as it does about the subject?
Seldom have these questions seemed more pertinent than with Conrad
Black’s biography of Richard Nixon, arguably the case of one incredibly
To continue reading
Request your trial