Delusions of Grandeur: The United Nations and Global Intervention [Hardcover]

Ted Galen Carpenter (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 29, 1997

Questions whether or not the United Nations can be reformed

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Edited by the director of foreign affairs of the Cato Institute, this work is an excellent contribution to the ongoing debate over the future role and prospects of the United Nations (see also Geoffrey Simons's UN Malaise, St. Martin's, 1995). The outgrowth of a 1996 conference, it covers the controversial political issues of U.N. institutional reform, U.S. policy, and the U.N.'s role as peacemaker and peacekeeper, as well as the oft-overlooked activities of the world organization in the social, environmental, and economic spheres. Carpenter's introductory chapter nicely summarizes the major conclusions of each of the 18 contributors, all of them knowledgeable and representing varied points of view. Although most essays tend to be critical, this does not detract from the usefulness of the "sober and reasoned approaches" presented, making for a provocative and timely discussion that should appeal to both informed general readers and international relations specialists.?David Ettinger, George Washington Univ., Washington, D.C.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

in the post-Cold War period or is a failed experiment that should be abandoned.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 184 pages
• Publisher: Cato Institute (July 29, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1882577493
• ISBN-13: 978-1882577491
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,055,020 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The United Nations: Hope and Reality, May 30, 2000

By 

christopher layne (los angeles, california) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Delusions of Grandeur: The United Nations and Global Intervention (Paperback)

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 multilateralism," the Clinton administration, for example, probably is more favourably disposed to international institutions than any US administration in recent memory. Yet, even the Clinton administration has refused to subordinate U.S. national interests to UN imperatives. US policy remains to act multilaterally through institutions like the UN when doing so furthers US interests, but to act unilaterally when it is necessary. And like most in the American foreign policy community, the Clinton administration has seen the UN as an instrument that the US can employ to shift to others the burdens of saving failed states and stopping regional and ethnic conflicts in areas (like Africa) where US interests are not engaged.

Obviously readers will not agree with all of the arguments advanced by the contributors to Delusions of Grandeur. But this is a serious book about issues that go to the heart of US foreign policy: when and where to intervene; the prospects for economic and social development in the "Third World" and its relationship to global stability; and the tension between national and global interests, and the role that international institutions should play in US foreign policy. For any reader intersted in these important questions, Delusions of Grandeur is an excellent place to start: it frames the issues fairly and provides a spirited -- but highly reasonsed debate -- among eminent scholars and policy analysts of divergent viewpoints. Delusions of Grandeur is an indispensable source for anyone interested in the United Nations, and in American foreign policy, in the post-Cold War world.

4.0 out of 5 stars important considerations, September 20, 2001

By 

Corey (Colorado, United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Delusions of Grandeur: The United Nations and Global Intervention (Hardcover)

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.

7 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Essays against interventionism, March 8, 2000

By 

Sasha Harvard (Winnipeg, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Delusions of Grandeur: The United Nations and Global Intervention (Paperback)

"Delusions of Grandeur" is a collection of essays by American authors, each of them critical of the present system of international interventionism in the economic, environmental, and political spheres. They attack UN peacekeeping from a classic "1930s America" isolationist stance - "if it doesn't concern us, then we mustn't get involved." They attack the UN environmental agenda with neo-conservative economic determinism, that is, we mustn't regulate at all, lest we threaten the corporatist agenda. Every UN effort to date is picked apart in this collection of remarkably short-sighted and socially irresponsible essays.

If you feel that the Western world has a role to play in ameliorating the conditions planet-wide, don't buy this book. If you have any faith in mankind at all, don't buy this book. If you feel that we should hunker down within our borders and leave ourselves totally vulnerable to free market forces, well, then, this book won't tell you anything you don't already know.

Two thumbs down.