The No-Nonsense Guide to the United Nations

"This is a more general book on the UN, written by a friend of mine, Maggie Black. It is superbly done. It is a very lively little book – a good antidote for those who think that the UN must be filled with boring people and boring debates. It gives you a very good account of the politics but also of the practical impact of the UN. Many people have a view that the UN is mostly about the Security Council, about ending wars with possibly a few humanitarian actions thrown in on the side. What this little No Nonsense Guide to the UN shows is that the UN covers a much broader canvas. It covers development goals and the UN’s many development agencies, such as UNDP and UNICEF and specialised agencies like the ILO, WHO, UNESCO and the FAO. These deal with world issues of employment and wages, health and health policy, education and culture, food and agriculture. Maggie Black explains in just two or three pages the roles and effectiveness of each. It is by no means a general sales book for the UN – the author is very critical on certain aspects of the UN and she presents very interesting data on how the UN is often misunderstood. When I recently looked at it again, I saw the interesting data on vetoes in the Security Council. These are often seen as the nasty and disruptive work of the Third World or of Russia – being disruptive towards democratic efforts of the United States and the United Kingdom. In fact, Maggie shows that, since the 1960s, by far the most vetoes have been cast by the US, with the UK next on the list."