Karim Makdisi is Associate Professor of International Politics at the American University of Beirut and Research Director of the UN in the Arab World program at the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs. Vijay Prashad is Professor of International Studies at Trinity College and Senior Non-Resident Fellow at the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs at the American University of Beirut.

• Acknowledgments List of Abbreviations Introduction - Karim Makdisi and Vijay Prashad PART ONE - DIPLOMACY 1 * The Role of the UN Secretary-General: A Historical Assessment - Andrew Gilmour 2 * Palestine, the Third World, and the UN as Seen from a Special Commission - Lori Allen 3 * On Behalf of the United Nations: Serving as Special Rapporteur of the Human Rights Council for Palestinian Territories Occupied since 1967 - Richard Falk 4 * The UN Statehood Bid: Palestine's Flirtation with Multilateralism - Noura Erakat 5 * The Wrong Kind of Intervention in Syria - Asli Bali and Aziz Rana PART TWO - ENFORCEMENT AND PEACEKEEPING 6 * Constructing Security Council Resolution 1701 in Lebanon in the Shadow of the "War on Terror" - Karim Makdisi 7 * The UN Security Council and Ghosts of Iraq - Poorvi Chitalkar and David M. Malone 8 * Iraq: Twenty Years in the Shadow of Chapter VII - Coralie Pison Hindawi 9 * Libya: A UN Resolution and NATO's Failure to Protect - Jeff Bachman 10 * Peacekeeping and the Arab World: India's Rise and Its Impact on UN Missions in Sudan = Zachariah Mampilly PART THREE - HUMANITARIANISM AND REFUGEES 11 * The UN Human Rights Game and the Arab Region: Playing Not to Lose - Fateh Azzam 12 * The Politics of the Sanctions on Iraq and the UN Humanitarian Exception = Hans-Christof von Sponeck 13 * An Agency for the Palestinians? - Jalal Al Husseini 14 * Challenged but Steadfast: Nine Years with Palestinian Refugees and the UN Relief and Works Agency = Filippo Grandi 15 * The UN High Commissioner for Refugees and the Iraq Refugee Operation: Resettling Refugees, Shifting the Middle East Humanitarian Landscape - Arafat Jamal 16 * The Syrian Refugee Crisis in the Middle East - Shaden Khallaf 17 * The Middle East: A Mandatory Return to Humanitarian Action - Caroline Abu Sa'Da PART FOUR - DEVELOPMENT 18 * The UN, the Economic and Social Commission for West Asia, and Development in the Arab World = Omar Dahi 19 * The United Nations, Palestine, Liberation, and Development - Raja Khalidi 20 * Peacebuilding in Palestine: Western Strategies in the Context of Colonization - Mandy Turner 21 * The International Labour Organization and Workers' Rights in the Arab Region: The Need to Return to Basics - Walid Hamdan 22 * Peacekeeping, Development, and Counterinsurgency: The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon and "Quick Impact Projects" - Susann Kassem 23 * The Protective Shields: Civil Society Organizations and the UN in the Arab Region = Kinda Mohamadieh List of Contributors Index

"Karim Makdisi and Vijay Prashad’s Land of Blue Helmets: The United Nations and the Arab World therefore offers not only an important scholarly contribution but also one of some political urgency for anyone who seeks to gain a better understanding of the past, and probable future, work of the UN."