Home | Business News | Browse by Publication | I | International Journal on World Peace

KINGS OF PEACE, PAWNS OF WAR: THE UNTOLD STORY OF PEACEMAKING.

Article Excerpt
Harriet Martin

London and New York: Continuum, 2006

224 pages, hardcover, $29.95

Kofi Annan once described the job of the United Nations Secretary-General as "the job from hell." After reading Harriet Martin's Kings of Peace, Pawns of War, one wonders whether Annan was in fact describing the job of a peace mediator, a job that requires all the skills and stamina of the UN Secretary-Genera] but is unlikely to win you a Nobel peace price for the mantelpiece. The six men described in this book arc not household names even to a reasonably informed person with an interest in international affairs. Yet these are men whose task it was to mediate in some of the most persistent or bloody conflicts in recent memory; Lakhdar Brahimi in Afghanistan (2001) and Iraq (2004); Alvaro de Soto in Cyprus (1999-2003 and again in 2004); Martin Griffiths in Aceh (2000-2003); Vidar Helgesen and Erik Solheim in Sri Lanka (2000-2005); and Lazaro Sumbeiywo in South Sudan (2002-2005).

Regardless of their relatively obscure public personae, the book's subjects arc captivating. Here are men who have forged careers in civil service and who, together with "a phenomenal ability to listen," bring to the negotiating table their diplomatic savoir faire. Perhaps familiarity with protocol does not sound so fascinating? When even the smallest...

View this article FREE - Now for a Limited Time, try Goliath Business News
Free for 3 Days!