Fasulo, Linda. An Insider's Guide to the U.N

International Social Science Review, Fall-Winter, 2004 by Charles W. McClellan

Fasulo, Linda. An Insider's Guide to the U.N. New Haven, CT: Yale University 2004. 245 pp. Cloth, $27.00.

Readers will be most familiar with Linda Fasulo from her work as UN correspondent for National Public Radio: this work derives from her years interviewing UN activists and bureaucrats and the information disseminated in her news reportage. Each short chapter can be viewed as a single episode of reporting--focused, precise, and crafted to fit a three- to four-minute time segment. Scattered through the text are a mish-mash of gray text boxes incorporating lists, excerpts, descriptions, abbreviated biographies, and quotations that in most publications would have been relegated to charts, tables, or even footnotes, but are presented here in a fashion that makes them appear more like printed "sound bites."

As a correspondent of long association, Fasulo is herself "on the inside," drawing upon the expertise of fellow UN insiders. Although some of her interviewees are critical of UN personalities and policies, hers is a strongly positive portrayal of the organization. She is particularly complimentary towards Kofi Annam the current secretary general, who, as the ultimate insider himself, understands the UN's culture and inner workings and who has a clearer vision of the role the UN can play in the post-Cold War world. She credits him, rightly, with many necessary reforms and with diminishing U.S. criticisms of the body. Her focus is more on the UN's future than on its past.

The organization today is one struggling to define itself in a changing world. In the post-Cold War period, power relationships have changed, necessitating discussion of the need to reorganize the Security Council to ensure that it reflects current political realities. Fasulo emphasizes that the UN is not an organization of nation-states (although many would think so), but of people who ensure its day-to-day operation. In an era of globalization, when the continued relevancy of the nation-state is questioned, Fasulo downplays any suggestion that the organization can become a substitute: a world government. While most people tend to view the UN in political terms and define it by the actions of the Security Council, Fasulo points to the broad range of functions carried out and coordinated internationally by the organization, from feeding the hungry and vaccinating and educating children to promoting women's equality, nuclear nonproliferation, human rights, environmental protection, and international trade/labor issues, often and increasingly in cooperation with NGOs, not just governments.

Security issues have long been a prime focus for the UN and the definition of security (in political terms) is currently being challenged and reevaluated. For example, in 2000 the UN defined HIV/AIDS as an international security threat, and, by so doing, gave the health crisis greater international import. Fasulo is also correct to point out that, in dealing with security matters, the UN has numerous options, ranging from mediation to military intervention, although the latter seems always to get greater publicity.

This is a useful and competent book, well-suited to student use (apparently it was envisaged as a resource to be utilized by those involved in Model UN programs). Likewise, it will be attractive as a tourist handbook, likely available in the organization's bookshops. But academics, I think, will be disappointed. The depth of presentation is at most cursory and, while Fasulo is able to lay out the issues vital to the future of the organization, she does not delve very deeply (even with insider's insights) into analyzing the complex dimensions and options being discussed within the body today. To be fair, one must note that this was not a book written for academics. Even so, for the real "scoop" on the UN, serious students will want to look elsewhere, and to supplement their reading from other sources.

Charles W. McClellan, Ph.D.

Professor of History

Radford University

Radford, Virginia