The Horseshoe Table: An Inside View of the UN Security Council [Hardcover]

Chinmaya R Gharekhan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 18, 2006

It provides a ringside view of the functioning of this organ which, in theory, is a vital instrument at the service of the international community but over which the same international community has hardly any control.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Chinmaya Gharekhan, a distinguished member of the Indian Foreign Service, served in Egypt, the Congo, Laos, Vietnam, and former Yugoslavia. He has spent nearly a quarter century dealing with the United Nations in various capacities, first as first secretary in the Indian mission in New York, later as Permanent Representative to the United Nations Office and the Specialised Agencies in Geneva, and lastly as India's Ambassador/Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York for over six years. He also served as advisor for foreign affairs to Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi. He was appointed Under Secretary General in the United Nations in January 1993, first as a Senior Political Advisor and later as United Nations Special Coordinator for Occupied Territories with headquarters in Gaza. He was the Personal Representative of the Secretary General to the Security Council which provided him the unique opportunity to observe and record the working of the Security Council from both sides, delegation as well as secretariat.He has had the unique experience of having served as India's representative on the Security Council, including twice as its President as well as the Secretary General's personal representative on the Council for four years during which he had the rare opportunity to closely follow its working. He lives in New Delhi with his wife.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 328 pages
• Publisher: Longman; 1 edition (December 18, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 8177584537
• ISBN-13: 978-8177584530
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #858,005 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A unique insight into the Security Council, October 1, 2007

By 

David M. Malone - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Horseshoe Table: An Inside View of the UN Security Council (Hardcover)

Very few representatives in the Security Council have written about this important forum at length. Lord Carradon did, and his account of how Resolution 242 was hammered out still constitutes essential reading. But the period he describes, marked by the Cold War, is long gone. Cameron Hume (a senior American diplomat at the UN, later ambassador to South Africa) wrote a brilliant account of how work within the Security Council helped bring to an end the murderous Iran-Iraq war in 1987-88, just after Cold War tensions started to dissipate.

Chinmaya Gharekhan picks up where Hume left off, but from a different perspective: that of a non-permanent member, albeit a weighty one in international relations, India, which he represented on the Council with great skill and integrity in the aftermath of Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in 1990. He views the wrangling among the 5 permanent members (and the frequent vanity of the rest) with wry detachment, but also quite critically in terms of long-term outcomes and consequences. His writing has the clarity of a top-notch diplomatic dispatch, but also contains admirable depth of analysis derived from many years of reflection on the events he discusses before he consigned his thoughts and recollections to the page.

Gharekhan subsequently served as UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali's representative within the key informal consultations of Security Council members, a difficult job of intermediation which again acquainted him with the Permanent 5, not always seen in their best light in the give and take of private negotiation. Gharekhan is more generous in his judgment of Boutros-Ghali than many others have been, but he knew him better than most.

Finally, Gharekhan served as the UN's political envoy in the Middle East during the dog days of the Clinton administration leading up to the (failed) Camp David talks between Israeli PM Barak and the Palestinian Authority's Yassir Arafat. Gharekhan, looking back at the Middle East from these multiple perspectives, provides valuable insights. (He is today the Indian Prime Minister's special envoy to the Middle East, and thus still very much "in the game".)

In sum, while potentially dry at first glance, this slim volume contains a treasure trove of observations and commentary that no serious scholar of multilateral diplomacy should pass up and that the general reader can learn a great deal from with pleasure. Strongly recommended.

5.0 out of 5 stars A "must read" book for anyone interested in contemporary international affairs, March 10, 2007

By 

Timothy S. Rothermel (USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Horseshoe Table: An Inside View of the UN Security Council (Hardcover)

"The Horseshoe Table: An Inside View of the UN Security Council" has been written by an insightful and experienced diplomat, Ambassador Chinmaya Gharekhan. It provides an intimate account of how the most powerful organ of the UN - the Security Council - works or fails to work. While much has been written about the Council, no publication comes close to matching Gharekhan's personal knowledge about the Council, having served for many years as a Member, its President and as the Secretary-General's Personal Representative to the Council. Since most of the work of the Council actually takes place in informal sessions, closed to journalists, Gharekhan's notes and perceptions about the issues, personalities and the role of the Secretary-General reveal a heretofore unknown wealth of knowledge about such international crises such as the Balkans, Rwanda and others during the decade of the 1990s. Moreover, it is written in an enjoyable style with considerable tongue in cheek humor. The book is an invaluable contribution to diplomatic history and a highly recommended enjoyable read.