Boxes, figures and tables.

First published in 1998, this volume is a record, both by detailed statistical analysis and by personal account, of lessons learned. These lessons are only useful if they are shared to ensure that they are not relearned the hard way. Any soldier or statesman who is involved in Peacekeeping Operations and anyone involved in the future of peacekeeping in the United Nations would be well advised to use this exceptionally insightful and informative work as one of their essential reference books. It contains a rich store of analysis and sober conclusions that makes it an indispensable guide and should serve as a source of inspiration and reflection, but even more it should serve to provide guidance for future action. Biermann and Vadset have made a major contribution to the analysis of UN field operations and an important source book for the study of UN and NATO operations.

First published in 1998, this volume is a record, both by detailed statistical analysis and by personal account, of lessons learned. These lessons are only useful if they are shared to ensure that they are not relearned the hard way. Any soldier or statesman who is involved in Peacekeeping Operations and anyone involved in the future of peacekeeping in the United Nations would be well advised to use this exceptionally insightful and informative work as one of their essential reference books. It contains a rich store of analysis and sober conclusions that makes it an indispensable guide and should serve as a source of inspiration and reflection, but even more it should serve to provide guidance for future action. Biermann and Vadset have made a major contribution to the analysis of UN field operations and an important source book for the study of UN and NATO operations.

This book is the main result of the two-year Danish-Norwegian Research Project on the evolution of UN peacekeeping operations in the Post-Cold War era, studying what peacekeepers perceive as the lessons learned from their experience. While the wars in the former Yugoslavia have served as the main "area of reference", the book also covers some aspects of peacekeeping in Somalia, Cambodia and the Middle East. It combines different methods of research by collecting and analysing data, including: open-ended interviews with top-level civilian and military practitioners; two international workshops (Oslo, 1995 and Copenhagen, 1996), where lessons learned were discussed by UNPROFOR commanders; and a questionnaire survey covering several hundreds of UNPROFOR officers from several countries. In addition to the editors' analysis, a major part of the book provides a forum where prominent military and civilian staff sum up specific lessons learned from the operations in the former Yugoslavia. Their experiences provide a major input into the conceptual discussion of future UN peacekeeping. One of the practical aims of the book is to bridge a gap between abstract models and political ambitions on the one side, and empirical realities on the other. By focusing on the application of peacekeeping principles in conflicts with elements of civil wars, the book does not aim at competing with the growing literature on the former Yugoslavia, but at supplementing that literature - and having a broader scope than it. The main challenge of the study was finding ways to utilize and to systemize the accumulated knowledge of UN personnel in order to identify political and operational "secrets of success" and "reasons for failure". The book's combination of quantitative and qualitative methods makes it unique in offering a comprehensive picture, based on solid practical experience, of the challenges peacekeepers face when operating in civil wars and similar conflicts. It provides rich insights in defining "practicability tests" that should be applied in future both to public demands and proposed mandates for peacekeeping operations. (Adapted from publisher's abstract).