Calling the Shots

About this book

New revised & updated edition with a new preface by Denis Halliday.

The United Nations remains a favorite scapegoat for U.S. and allied failures in places like Rwanda, Iraq, Kosovo, and East Timor. Few look beyond the headlines to the primary responsibility of the United States for what are all too often called “UN failures.” Filled with tales of UN intrigue and diplomatic carrots and sticks, Calling the Shots exposes how U.S. financial and political bribes are backed by threats and punishments for recalcitrant nations who refuse to toe the U.S. line.

The new edition examines U.S.-UN relations at the close of the 20th century: now $1.6 billion in debt to the UN, Washington increasingly undermines or even ignores the world organization, seeking to replace the UN’s authority with that of favored military alliances such as NATO. Hopes rise for a new internationalism, as citizens organizations join with the UN to create the International Criminal Court, to ban anti-personnel land mines, to protect children from the ravages of war, but the U.S. stands aloof.