Dangerous Diplomacy

Bureaucracy, Power Politics, and the Role of the UN Secretariat in Rwanda

Herman T. Salton

Features exclusive material from the late Sir Marrack Goulding's archive, including diary entries and documents covering the period from 1986 to 2005
Provides an in-depth, insider view of UN institutional history and the Rwandan genocide
Shows the relationship between power politics and UN bureaucracy
Examines the institutional history of the United Nations, suggesting how and why several of the bureaucratic pathologies which affected the UN Secretariat during the Rwandan genocide are still present in New York today

Winner of the 2018 ISA Chadwick Alger Prize and Friends of ACUNS 2018 Book Award

Dangerous Diplomacy

Bureaucracy, Power Politics, and the Role of the UN Secretariat in Rwanda

Herman T. Salton

Description

Dangerous Diplomacy reassesses the role of the UN Secretariat during the Rwandan genocide. With the help of new sources, including the personal diaries and private papers of the late Sir Marrack Goulding—an Under-Secretary-General from 1988 to 1997 and the second highest-ranking UN official during the genocide—the book situates the Rwanda operation within the context of bureaucratic and power-political friction existing at UN Headquarters in the early 1990s. The book shows how this confrontation led to a lack of coordination between key UN departments on issues as diverse as reconnaissance, intelligence, and crisis management. Yet Dangerous Diplomacy goes beyond these institutional pathologies and identifies the conceptual origins of the Rwanda failure in the gray area that separates peacebuilding and peacekeeping. The difficulty of separating these two UN functions explains why six decades after the birth of the UN, it has still not been possible to demarcate the precise roles of some key UN departments.

Winner of the 2018 ISA Chadwick Alger Prize and Friends of ACUNS 2018 Book Award

Dangerous Diplomacy

Bureaucracy, Power Politics, and the Role of the UN Secretariat in Rwanda

Herman T. Salton

Foreword
Introduction: Bureaucracy, Power, and Tragedy in Rwanda
Part I: Structures
1:Department of Peacekeeping Operations
2:Department of Political Affairs
3:United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda
4:Secretary-General's Office
5:Security Council
Part II: Processes
6:Bureaucracy
7:Intelligence
8:Leadership
9:Morality
10:Peacebuilding
Conclusion: The UN Secretariat Yesterday and Today

Winner of the 2018 ISA Chadwick Alger Prize and Friends of ACUNS 2018 Book Award

Dangerous Diplomacy

Bureaucracy, Power Politics, and the Role of the UN Secretariat in Rwanda

Herman T. Salton

Author Information

Herman T. Salton, Associate Professor of Politics, Philosophy and Economics (PPE), Asian University for Women, Bangladesh and USA

Herman T. Salton is Associate Professor of Politics, Philosophy, and Economics at the Asian University for Women, a liberal arts college in Chittagong, Bangladesh, with a support foundation in Cambridge, Massachusetts that promotes gender equality and draws students from Asia and the Middle-East. He teaches and publishes in the areas of international politics, international law, human rights, and the United Nations.

Winner of the 2018 ISA Chadwick Alger Prize and Friends of ACUNS 2018 Book Award

Dangerous Diplomacy

Bureaucracy, Power Politics, and the Role of the UN Secretariat in Rwanda

Herman T. Salton

Reviews and Awards

Winner of the ISA Chadwick Alger Prize, 2018.

"Herman T. Salton's book is a work of great ethical and intellectual depth, as well as of interpersonal and organizational insight, which is genuinely exceptional, original and of superlative quality - it is a major contribution to literature on the UN." - Noam Schimmel, International Affairs

"The book is a fascinating read and offers genuinely novel insights. Salton offers a politically most relevant insight on collaboration and communication between the UN's leading departments." - From the Laudatio for the ISA Chadwick Alger Prize

Winner of the 2018 ISA Chadwick Alger Prize and Friends of ACUNS 2018 Book Award

Dangerous Diplomacy

Bureaucracy, Power Politics, and the Role of the UN Secretariat in Rwanda

Herman T. Salton

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