Waterloo, Canada - Ramesh Thakur, Distinguished Fellow at CIGI (Centre for International Governance Innovation) and former senior vice-rector of the United Nations University, releases two new publications that probe the current debate in international affairs: War in Our Time: Reflections on Iraq, Terrorism and Weapons of Mass Destruction and Unintended Consequences of Peacekeeping Operations.
War in Our Time brings together a collection of Thakur's own opinion articles from a number of newspapers around the world, among them The Hindu, The Japan Times, The International Herald Tribune and The Globe and Mail. This latest publication by Thakur offers a well-considered analysis of the critical security issues surrounding the Iraq war, the war on terror and weapons of mass destruction. War in Our Time is garnering attention from some of the leading academics and practitioners in international affairs. Richard Falk from Princeton University comments that the publication "provides an invaluable resource that should be made required reading for leaders and citizens alike."
The second volume, Unintended Consequences of Peacekeeping Operations, edited by Chiyuki Aoi, Cedric de Coning and Ramesh Thakur, is one of the first attempts to improve understanding of the unplanned impacts of peacekeeping operations by drawing together in-depth academic study and first-hand accounts from the field. By profiling the experiences of the host country and troop-contributing countries, the contributing authors expose the often unseen face of peacekeeping that can involve corruption, sexual abuse and exploitation, and the creation of a shadow economy. Taken together, the chapters in this volume offer penetrating insights into peacekeeping operations and aim to point to ways to improve the planning and management of peacekeeping operations.
These two new books add to the long list of over thirty publications Ramesh Thakur has authored or edited, as well as 300 articles and book chapters. Both publications are available through United Nations University Press: War in Our Time: Reflections on Iraq, Terrorism and Weapons of Mass Destruction, ISBN 978-92-808-1145-2; Unintended Consequences of Peacekeeping Operations, ISBN 978-92-808-1142-1.
For more information on these and other titles by CIGI experts, please visit http://www.cigionline.org/publications