Book review: the new world of UN peace operations: learning to build peace?

Over the past decade, UN blue helmets have been dispatched to ever more challenging environments from the Congo to Timor to perform an expanding set of tasks. But all too often, the UN have been “flying blind” in their efforts to stabilize countries ravaged by war. The UN realized the need to put knowledge, guidance, and reflection on failures and successes at the centre of the institution. Building on an innovative multi-disciplinary framework, this study provides a first comprehensive account of learning in peacekeeping. Catherine Baker finds that this book is a useful snapshot of the policy-making process in the largest and most complex of international organisations.