Sharing the Front Line and the Back Hills: International Protectors and Providers : Peacekeepers, Humanitarian Aid Workers and the Media in the Midst of Crisis [Hardcover]

Yael, Ph.D. Danieli (Editor), Kofi A. Annan (Foreword)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0895032635 | ISBN-13: 978-0895032638 | Publication Date: September 2001

Sharing the Front Line and the Back Hills points to a crisis facing international institutions and the media who seek to alleviate and report human suffering throughout the world. The goals of the editor are to tell the story of thousands of individuals dedicated to helping others; and to integrate issues of protection and care into all levels of planning, implementing and evaluating international intervention and action. The book identifies approaches that have proven useful and explores and suggests future directions. The book reports comprehensively existing empirical knowledge about stress and post traumatic stress reactions and associated interventions among military peacekeepers, and represents the first significant effort to publish comparable research on their civilian counterparts. Interwoven among the chapters are "voices" whose authors express in personal and moving terms the impact of their experiences. This volume consists of six sections, subdivided into chapters according to the type of international protectors and providers (United Nation’s military and nonmilitary peacekeepers and peace builders; civilian staff of the UN system, volunteers, non-governmental organizations, and the media); the organizations they represent; their focus (such as women, children and forensic work); the nature of knowledge (data-based, descriptive, and reflective experiential) and challenges and remedies (such as psychological, educational, legal and political). The concluding chapter elaborates policy and program recommendations

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Sharing the Front Line and the Back Hills is a unique compilation of firsthand accounts of those brave individuals." -- David Scheffer, former U.S. Ambassador at Large for War Crimes Issues

"These are short accounts of personnel describing their pains and joys as they live and work in crisis settings." -- Dr. Kelly O’Donnell, Consulting Psychologist, Geneva, Switzerland

In the slowly expanding canon of literature about the psychological cost of war, this book deserves a towering position." -- Fergal Keane, Special Correspondent with BBC News, and author of' Season of Blood - A Rwandan Journey

From the Publisher

Intended audience: foreign ministries, ambassadors, delegates; those associated with non- and inter-governmental organizations; humanitarians human rights workers; policy-making institutions; libraries; the media; practitioners of medicine, public health, and mental health; traumatologists; emergency/disaster relief workers; international lawyers; criminologists and victimologists; and the clergy.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 444 pages
• Publisher: Baywood Pub Co (September 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0895032635
• ISBN-13: 978-0895032638
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,068,832 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars A very needed book that tells it like it is, August 5, 2009

By 

Autodidact - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Sharing the Front Line and the Back Hills: International Protectors and Providers : Peacekeepers, Humanitarian Aid Workers and the Media in the Midst of Crisis (Hardcover)

Mixing vignettes from aid workers and short articles that address issues and roles in the international aid community, this volume tells the hard side of aid work. The voices of aid workers describe terror, loneliness, and lingering psychosocial problems for which they receive no help and no resources, as well as the courage and dedication of the professionals that face dangers that are unimaginable to most people in the United States. Anyone thinking of working in international development should read this book first, and then ask themelves what skills, knowledge or support they will need to face the kinds of situations that are faced by the aid workers in this book. They should not count on getting much help from aid organizations.