Delusions of Grandeur: The United Nations and Global Intervention

by Ted Galen Carpenter

Book Overview

Questions whether or not the United Nations can be reformed

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1882577493
• ISBN13: 9781882577491
• Release Date: July 1997
• Publisher: Cato Institute
• Length: 184 Pages
• Weight: 1.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.3" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

important considerations

In a world of normative statements and directives, we must consider both the positive and negative reports of benefit or ROI. This books has compiled a number of reports that one may not agree with, but it does make you think. I found it to be a unique source.

The United Nations: Hope and Reality

The collapse of the peacekeeping effort in Sierra Leone once again has thrust the United Nations into the headlines. But the specific issues in West Africa serve to highlight questions -- old and new -- about what the UN can, and cannot accomplish, and what the relationship is -- or should be -- between the UN and American foreign policy.Although published in 1997, the essays collected by Ted Galen Carpenter in Delusions of Grandeur: The United Nations and Global Intervention remain extraordinarily timely. Delusions of Grandeur is published by the Cato Institute, and for that reason some individuals with pre-conceived notions may be tempted to dismiss it as an example of "isolationist" thinking about American foreign policy. That epithet, however, is misplaced both with respect to Cato as an organization, and with respect to Delusions of Grandeur itself.As one would expect of a serious editor assembling a collection of essays on an important topic, Carpenter has assembled a group of authors that includes both supporters and critics of the United Nations. In the former category are Robert B. Oakley and Edward C. Luck. And as Carpenter writes in his introduction, his aim in editing the book -- one in which he has succeeded admirably -- is to present a balanced view of the issues. Consquently, the reader will find sober discussions by both critics and supporters of the UN. Among the former, there are no diatribes about black helicopters hovering in the night to enforce a UN-imposed New World Order on the US. Among the later, there are no wholly headed "One World" visions of internationalism similar to those articulated in the early and mid 1940s by Wendell Wilkie and Clarence Streit.Instead, one will find a series of articles devoted to truly important topics such as the prospects for collective security, the UN role in peacekeeping and humanitarian intervention, organizational reform of the UN, and the UN's role with respect to global social and economic objectives.To be sure, some of the contributors do express skepticism about what the UN can accomplish, and about what it should attempt to accomplish. In this vein, Carpenter's own essay on collective security sets the tone. Following in the tradition of Inis Claude, and of realist scholars of international relations (notably John Mearsheimer and Richard Betts), Carpenter demonstrates why collective security schemes invariably fail.Delusions of Grandeur reminds us that the UN is not, and never was intended to be, a world government. As an organization the UN has only the powers and resources with which its members invest it. In a world where states still remain sovereign, and still must be concerned foremostly with their individual national interests, it is unsurprising that the UN often falls short of the expectations held for it by its more ardent champions.Certainly, American policy is illustrative. As evidenced by its support for "assertive m