The Scoop on Peacekeeping

About a quarter of the way into Pale Blue Hope: Death and Life in Asian Peacekeeping, Ronald Poulton’s memoir about working with the United Nations, Poulton states his thesis. There may be moments in UN operations, he tells us, when both the bureaucrats in New York and the staff in the field have “a cold, careful eye trained on the realities of a country.” They encourage compromise: military force is brought into readiness while behind the scenes private dialogue is held. With skill, tact and planning, a crisis is averted. “Unfortunately,”hewrites, “I have never seen a UN operation handled in such a manner.”

Poulton is a lawyer—what his publisher calls a human rights lawyer. In the early 1990s and then later, in 1998, seeking both adventure and the chance to do what he considered some good, he signed on to work for the United Nations, first in Cambodia and then in Tajikistan. Although there would be lots to say about the Pol Pot aftermath in Cambodia, this...