Table of Contents

• Prologue
• 1. Afghanistan: 9/11 and the War on Terror
• 2. Iraq: Lingering Damage to the Idea of Collective Action
• 3. Georgia: The War That Could Have Been Avoided
• 4. Côte d’Ivoire: Elections Are Rarely the Shortest Route to Peace
• 5. Democratic Republic of the Congo: The Limits of the Use of Force
• 6. Democratic Republic of the Congo: Was It Worth It?
• 7. Sudan: Dangers of a Fragmented Strategy for a Fragmented Country
• 8. Darfur: Deploying Peacekeepers against All Odds
• 9. Lebanon: How to End a War
• 10. Kosovo: The Long Goodbye
• 11. Haiti: The Difficulty of Helping Others
• 12. Syria: A World out of Control
• 13. Making the United Nations Relevant in Today’s World
• Epilogue
• Acknowledgments
• Index

About the Author

Jean-Marie Guéhenno is former under secretary general for U.N. peacekeeping operations; he is current president and CEO of the International Crisis Group.

Reviews

The corresponding chapters offer pointed and precise narratives of thesecrises, of their underlying causes, of the local, regional and international interests at stake, and of the role the UN played in each of them. That in itself should suffice to make The Fog of Peace a remarkable accomplishment."
-IISS Journal


"As can be expected from an author of Jean-Marie Guéhenno’s experience and prescience, The Fog of Peace captures well the moral conundrums and diplomatic obstacles that the United Nations and its Department of Peacekeeping face in the post–cold war era. At a time when the international framework established to curtail conflict and human suffering is under increasing pressure, his book provides valuable insights and timely advice on how to strengthen our global security architecture."
Kofi A. Annan Secretary General of the United Nations, 1997–2006

"In Afghanistan and Sudan I shared with Jean-Marie Guéhenno the accomplishments and the frustrations he portrays in The Fog of Peace. This honest and probing account captures the realities of peacekeeping in the twenty-first century. It is a first-hand recounting of some of the most difficult work the United Nations has undertaken."
Lakhdar Brahimi former UN Special Envoy to Syria and special representative to Haiti, South Africa, Afghanistan, and Iraq

"Jean-Marie Guéhenno is a scholar-diplomat of immense integrity, intelligence, judgment, and charm. He won international respect during his eight-year stewardship of UN peacekeeping—no mean feat given those years coincided precisely with George W. Bush’s presidency. What shines through this thoughtful and detailed account is the admirable way in which Guéhenno maintained his own moral compass amid a swirl of competing pragmatic and political imperatives, never succumbing to the weary cynicism that so often afflicts international public servants. We could have no better guide to navigating the “fog of peace.”"
-Gareth Evans Foreign Minister of Australia, 1988–96, and President of the International Crisis Group, 2000–09