The Middle East is nearly at all-out war. What use the United Nations?
Israel continues to carry out major military operations on multiple fronts and a rising toll of death and displacement is sweeping Lebanon and the Palestinian territories. An anxious world is asking who can make it stop when the United Nations seems so helpless. Excerpts from This Week, Those Books on whether the UN should just throw up its hands and acknowledge defeat. Sign up at https://thisweekthosebooks.substack.com/ and get the post and podcast the day it drops
Thank you signing up for This Week, Those Books, your rundown on books new and old that resonate with the week’s big news story.
A very special shout out to those incredible folks who recently supported this news literacy effort by investing in a paid membership. Thanks so much. Please know that you are helping keep this 16-month-old venture alive (you give me heart) and accessible to our community of more than 10,000 subscribers in 114 countries.
🎧 Would you rather listen? We have a podcast.
– Rashmee
The Big Story:
Nearly 200 countries gathered for the annual United Nations General Assembly in New York with hot wars raging from the Middle East to Europe to Africa. Meanwhile, the UN, the leading global governance institution, seemed helpless, even irrelevant…
With so much bloodshed, mass displacement and human suffering — not least Gaza, Lebanon, Israel, Ukraine, Sudan — is the UN even capable of addressing world crises?
The UN — which turns 80 next year — is criticised for representing the old order…
This Week, Those Books:
PLEASE NOTE: Both this week’s picks reflect a certain moment in time and a very particular mindset, which might be disturbing to some.
A passionate defence of UN privilege.
A love story set in the heart of the old League of Nations.
The Backstory:
The UN succeeded the Geneva-based League of Nations, the 20th century’s first fully developed international political organisation dedicated to world peace and security…
But the idea of creating an international organisation that can resolve disputes between countries and enforce peace persisted. That ideal goes back hundreds of years. In the 14th century, Dante…
The UN’s two fundamental flaws are said to be “the principle of one country–one vote in the General Assembly and the veto within the Security Council”…
This Week’s Books:
Five to Rule Them All: The UN Security Council and the Making of the Modern World
By: David L. Bosco
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Year: 2009
This book is worth reading for several reasons — it’s well-written, informative and provocative.
I don’t know if David Bosco set out to be punchy. But he is very brave in challenging persistent criticisms of the UN, and more specifically of the Security Council (UNSC), which he acknowledges as “the world’s most elite and powerful diplomatic body”.
He does this by taking a rather small-scale view…
Bosco’s contention that the great powers of the UNSC have done just fine by isolating themselves from far-away conflicts was contentious even 15 years ago, when the book was published. So much more today…
Choice quote:
“When the Council is united, its members can wage war, impose blockades, unseat governments, and levy sanctions, all in the name of the international community. There are almost no limits to the body’s authority…”
Her Lover (Belle du Seigneur)
By: Albert Cohen. Translated by David Coward
Publisher: Viking
Year: 1995 in English; 1968 in French
French readers of a certain age may know this novel. In fact, they may revere it. This book won Albert Cohen comparison with Proust and Joyce, as well as the Grand Prix of the French Academy. It’s long been considered a masterpiece.
Then, its English translation was published nearly 30 years ago. Over the course of nearly 1,000 pages, we all got to read this love story…Somewhere along the way, amid all the cocktails and dinner parties, we came to see the League of Nations as full of lazy, self-interested diplomats…
Despite the status of this novel in the original French, Cohen may come to be chiefly remembered internationally for his contribution to refugee law…
I hope you find This Week, Those Books useful, thoughtful, and…a conversation starter. It’s a small operation here at TWTB, and support from readers like you helps keep this news literacy project going.
Email thisweekthosebooks@substack.com to say ‘hi’.
Connect with me on LinkedIn | Twitter | Bluesky | Facebook | Threads |YouTube
Originally published at This Week, Those Books
