Peacekeepers at War

Peacekeepers at War PDF Author: Michael Petit
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780571125456
Category : Beirut (Lebanon)
Languages : en
Pages : 229

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Book Description
The author describes his experiences as part of a peacekeeping force in Lebanon, recounts the terrorist bombing that killed 241 American soldiers, and discusses the political implications of the situation

Peacekeepers at War

Peacekeepers at War PDF Author: Michael Petit
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780571125456
Category : Beirut (Lebanon)
Languages : en
Pages : 229

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Book Description
The author describes his experiences as part of a peacekeeping force in Lebanon, recounts the terrorist bombing that killed 241 American soldiers, and discusses the political implications of the situation

Peacekeepers at War

Peacekeepers at War PDF Author: Col. Timothy J. Geraghty, USMC (Ret.)
Publisher: Potomac Books, Inc.
ISBN: 1597974250
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 273

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Book Description
On October 23, 1983, nearly simultaneous suicide truck bombings killed 241 U.S. peacekeepers in their barracks at the Beirut International Airport (BIA) and 58 French paratroopers at their headquarters two miles north of BIA. In this long-awaited book, the Marine Corps commander of the U.S. Multi-National Peacekeeping Force that was destroyed by terrorists in Lebanon tells his story for the first time. Together, these suicide bombings comprised the largest nonnuclear explosion ever recorded and are now recognized as a seminal event leading to the current war on terrorism. Such acts of war revealed a new, highly effective tactic, which complemented the terrorist's strategic goals—the withdrawal of the peacekeepers and Western influence from Lebanon and a change in U.S. policy. Peacekeepers at War lays out, in detail, a sequence of events leading up to the suicide truck bombings from which one can extrapolate the rationale, motives, and perpetrators behind it. Geraghty argues that the absence of any retribution against the perpetrators emboldened the terrorists to assume they could attack Americans and Western interests with impunity. This led to kidnappings, torture, and the murders of Americans and other Westerners. Peacekeepers at War will be of interest to general readers who want to learn more about this seminal event and its effects on the current global war on terrorism.

Peacekeepers and Conquerors

Peacekeepers and Conquerors PDF Author: Samuel J. Watson
Publisher: University Press of Kansas
ISBN: 0700619151
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 654

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Book Description
In Jackson's Sword, Samuel Watson showed how the U.S. Army officer corps played a crucial role in stabilizing the frontiers of a rapidly expanding nation. In this sequel volume, he chronicles how the corps' responsibilities and leadership along the young nation's borders continued to grow. In the process, he shows, officers reflected an increasing commitment to professionalism, insulation from partisanship, and deference to civilian authority-all tempered in the forge of frustrating, politically complex operations and diplomacy along the nation's frontiers. Watson now focuses on the quarter-century between the Army's reduction in force in 1821 and the Mexican War. He examines a broad swath of military activity beginning with campaigns against southeastern Indians, notably the dispossession of the Creeks remaining in Georgia and Alabama from 1825 to 1834; the expropriation of the Cherokee between 1836 and 1838; and the Second Seminole War. He also explores peacekeeping on the Canadian border, which exploded in rebellion against British rule at the end of 1837, prompting British officials to applaud the U.S. Army for calming tensions and demonstrating its government's support for the international state system. He then follows the gradual extension of U.S. sovereignty in the Southwest through military operations west of the Missouri River and along the Louisiana-Texas border from 1821 to 1838 and through dragoon expeditions onto the central and southern Plains between 1834 and 1845. Throughout his account, Watson shows how military professionalism did not develop independent of civilian society, nor was it simply a matter of growing expertise in the art of conventional warfare. Indeed, the government trusted career army officers to serve as federal, international, and interethnic mediators, national law enforcers, and de facto intercultural and international peacekeepers. He also explores officers' attitudes toward Britain, Oregon, Texas, and Mexico to assess their values and priorities on the eve of the first conventional war the United States had fought in more than three decades. Watson's detailed study delves deeply into sources that reveal what officers actually thought, wrote, and did in the frontier and border regions. By examining the range of operations over the course of this quarter-century, he shows that the processes of peacekeeping, coercive diplomacy, and conquest were intricately and inextricably woven together.

Legions of Peace

Legions of Peace PDF Author: Philip Cunliffe
Publisher: Hurst & Company
ISBN: 9781849042901
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
A critical examination of the global power relations that underpin the unprecedented deployments of UN peacekeepers from poor and developing countries since.

Deliver Us From Evil

Deliver Us From Evil PDF Author: William Shawcross
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 0743225775
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 449

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Book Description
Reporting from war zones around the globe, acclaimed journalist William Shawcross gives us an unforgettable portrait of a dangerous world and of the brave men and women, ordinary and extraordinary, who risk their lives to make and keep the peace. The end of the Cold War was followed by a decade of regional and ethnic wars, massacres and forced exiles, and by constant calls for America to lead the international community as chief peace-keeper. The efforts of that community -- identified with the United Nations but often dominated by the world's wealthy nations -- have had mixed results. In Africa, the West is accused of indifference or too little, too late. In Cambodia, the UN presides over free elections, but the results are overridden. In Iraq, Saddam Hussein continues to defy the UN, and in Bosnia and Kosovo, the West acts hesitantly after terrible slaughter and ethnic cleansing. Shawcross, a veteran of many war zones, has had broad access to global policymakers, including UN secretary general Kofi Annan, high American diplomats, peacekeepers and humanitarian-aid professionals. He has traveled with them to some of the world's most horrifying killing fields. Deliver Us from Evil is his stark, on-the-ground report on the many crises faced by the international community and its servants as they struggle to respond around the world. He brings home the price many have paid attempting to restore peace and help alleviate terrible suffering. He illuminates the risks we face in a complex and dangerous world. Some critics have concluded that some interventions may prolong conflict and create further casualties. The lesson we learn from ruthless and vengeful warlords the world over is that goodwill without strength can make things worse. Shawcross argues that recent interventions -- in Kosovo and East Timor, for example -- provide reason for concern as well as hope. Still, the unmistakable message of the past decade is that we cannot intervene everywhere, that not every wrong can be righted merely because the international community desires it, or because we wish to remove images of suffering from our television screens. Nor can we necessarily rebuild failed states in our image. When we intervene, we must be certain of our objectives, sure of popular support and willing to expend the necessary resources -- even lives. If our interventions are to be effective and humane, they must last for more than the fifteen minutes of attention that the media accord to each succeeding crisis. That is a tall order. As Shawcross concludes, "In a more religious time it was only God whom we asked to deliver us from evil. Now we call upon our own man-made institutions for such deliverance. That is sometimes to ask for miracles."

Tested Mettle

Tested Mettle PDF Author: Scott Taylor
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781895896084
Category : Canada
Languages : en
Pages : 264

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Book Description


Does Peacekeeping Work?

Does Peacekeeping Work? PDF Author: Virginia Page Fortna
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 9780691136714
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 236

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Book Description
"Fortna demonstrates that peacekeeping is an extremely effective policy tool, dramatically reducing the risk that war will resume. Moreover, she explains that relatively small and militarily weak consent-based peacekeeping operations are often just as effective as larger, more robust enforcement missions. Fortna examines the causal mechanisms of peacekeeping, paying particular attention to the perspective of the peacekept--the belligerents themselves--on whose decisions the stability of peace depends."--publisher website.

The Fog of Peace

The Fog of Peace PDF Author: Jean-Marie Guehenno
Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
ISBN: 0815726317
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 353

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Book Description
No small number of books laud and record the heroic actions of those at war. But the peacekeepers? Who tells their stories? At the beginning of the 1990s, the world exited the cold war and entered an era of great promise for peace and security. Guided by an invigorated United Nations, the international community set out to end conflicts that had flared into vicious civil wars and to unconditionally champion human rights and hold abusers responsible. The stage seemed set for greatness. Today that optimism is shattered. The failure of international engagement in conflict areas ranging from Afghanistan to Congo and Lebanon to Kosovo has turned believers into skeptics. The Fog of Peace is a firsthand reckoning by Jean-Marie Guéhenno, the man who led UN peacekeeping efforts for eight years and has been at the center of all the major crises since the beginning of the 21st century. Guéhenno grapples with the distance between the international community's promise to protect and the reality that our noble aspirations may be beyond our grasp. The author illustrates with personal, concrete examples—from the crises in Afghanistan, Iraq, Congo, Sudan, Darfur, Kosovo, Ivory Coast, Georgia, Lebanon, Haiti, and Syria—the need to accept imperfect outcomes and compromises. He argues that nothing is more damaging than excessive ambition followed by precipitous retrenchment. We can indeed save many thousands of lives, but we need to calibrate our ambitions and stay the course.

Why Peacekeeping Fails

Why Peacekeeping Fails PDF Author: D. Jett
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 0312292740
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 251

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Book Description
Dennis C. Jett examines why peacekeeping operations fail by comparing the unsuccessful attempt at peacekeeping in Angola with the successful effort in Mozambique, alongside a wide range of other peacekeeping experiences. The book argues that while the causes of past peacekeeping failures can be identified, the chances for success will be difficult to improve because of the way such operations are initiated and conducted, and the way the United Nations operates as an organization. Jett reviews the history of peacekeeping and the evolution in the number, size, scope, and cost of peacekeeping missions. He also explains why peacekeeping has become more necessary, possible, and desired and yet, at the same time, more complex, more difficult, and less frequently used. The book takes a hard look at the UN's actions and provides useful information for understanding current conflicts.

United States Cavalry Peacekeepers in Bosnia

United States Cavalry Peacekeepers in Bosnia PDF Author: Mark A. Viney
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 0786488840
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 290

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Book Description
In December 1995, Operation Joint Endeavor--the first-ever ground operation conducted by NATO and the largest military operation in Europe since World War II--sought to implement a peace agreement concluding a bloody, ethnically motivated civil war in Bosnia. The 900 cavalrymen of 1st Squadron, 4th U.S. Cavalry (Quarterhorse) and its attached units comprised a small but prominent portion of an international task force in Bosnia that numbered more than 57,000 NATO soldiers. Despite austere conditions, mountainous terrain, bad weather, tens of thousands of land mines, and threats of terrorist attack, Quarterhorse upheld the peace in one of the most challenging parts of the American sector. Drawn from interviews, firsthand experiences and contemporary media, this account of the first year of NATO's peacekeeping operations in Bosnia addresses every aspect of the squadron's experience, providing a vivid portrait of American armed forces overseas.