Dangerous diplomacy

Dangerous Diplomacy' examines and reassesses the role of the UN Secretariat in the Rwandan genocide. With the help of new sources, including the personal diaries and private papers of the late Sir Marrack Goulding, an Under-Secretary-General from 1988 to 1997, this book situates the Rwanda operation within the context of bureaucratic friction existing at Headquarters in the early 1990s between the Department of Political Affairs (DPA) and the Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO). The book argues that these two units clashed not only over resources but also over the nature of peacekeeping and the 'political' limits of the Secretary-General's role. Importantly, the book also identifies the conceptual origins of the DPA/DPKO split in the gray area that separates peacebuilding and peacekeeping. The volume shows how and why power politics between global players, along with the porous borders between peacekeeping and peacebuilding, contributed to the Rwanda tragedy.