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UN bashing

by
March 2007, no. 289

The International Struggle Over Iraq: Politics in the UN security council 1980–2005 by David M. Malone

Oxford University Press, $85 hb, 412 pp

UN bashing

by
March 2007, no. 289

Public debate in Australia about the United Nations is remarkably thin, and it is dominated by two familiar tribes of pundits: UN groupies and UN bashers. The groupies defend the international organisation come what may: they are suspicious about the motives of nation-states – especially the United States – and they get an attack of the vapours every time Kofi Annan appears at a lectern. UN bashers, on the other hand, never saw a Security Council resolution they liked. They scoff at the time it takes states to argue their differences, bristle at the idea of dealing with non-democracies, and propose American power as an alternative organising principle for the world. Neither group, in other words, takes a balanced or realistic view of the world body. They are so busy praising the UN or burying it that they don’t have the time (or, rather, the column inches) to analyse it.

Michael Fullilove reviews 'The International Struggle Over Iraq: Politics in the UN security council 1980–2005' by David M. Malone

The International Struggle Over Iraq: Politics in the UN security council 1980–2005

by David M. Malone

Oxford University Press, $85 hb, 412 pp

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