Win a $25 GC: Surviving the United Nations by Robert Bruce Adolph

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I move often between continents. Today we are blessed to have homes in Mexico, Italy and Washington DC.I write wherever I am and as the mood strikes. My first book was written at the kitchen table, including three re-writes. My current book will be completed at a desk and in a room set aside for the purpose of writing. I do not permit surroundings to dictate when or how often I write. I believe writers will practice their vocation in the rain under a tent. Where is not important. What you have to say might be.

That said, my wife and I currently live in Rome, Italy, where I am working on another book. I find that this ancient city provides much inspiration for the writer that lives within me. This is one of the world’s most impressive open-air museums. Around every corner resides something of interest. The architecture is stunning. The cuisine is fantastic. The gelato is terrific. The natives are friendly. I wrote most of my first book while living nearby, close to the famous Piazza Navona, and another spot next to the Vatican in a community called Prati. I am working on the current book while living next to the Tiber River near Ponte Milvio. Italy provides it all. 

I’ve included a photo of the fantastic Rome skyline. This is what see from my writing room window. How could a man not be inspired? And I added a photo of myself speaking at John Cabot University here in Rome. It was a pleasure to be invited to present to their students on international relations.

The astonishing true story of a US Army Special Forces soldier who became a warrior for peace. In his humanitarian and peacekeeping missions for the United Nations he dealt with child-soldiers, blood diamonds, a double hostage-taking, an invasion by brutal guerrillas, an emergency aerial evacuation, a desperate hostage recover mission, tribal gunfights, refugee camp violence, suicide bombings, and institutional corruption. His UN career brought him face to face with the best and worst of human nature and he shares it all here.

Read an Excerpt

The unarmed variety of peacekeeping is a different sort of military mission. UN member states provide officers to serve as military observers. The most common term is UNMO, short for UN Military Observer. The general mission statement is to “observe and report.” UNMOs observe the status of the peace and write reports for the gratification of the UN Security Council that establishes the mandate under which the mission operates. Essentially, unarmed UNMOs are placed on the ground between former belligerents. Their lives are then held hostage to the peace process. Although little-reported, it is not uncommon for military observers to die in the performance of their duties. I found this type of peacekeeping service, in the abstract, to be an honorable endeavor. The reality, though, was sometimes something else entirely. As a matter of historical import, approximately three thousand eight hundred peacekeepers have died in the performance of their duties around the globe.

Another type of peacekeeping involves the use of armed battalions. I had seen this permutation in 1990 while serving with UN Observer Group-Lebanon in the form of the UN Interim Forces in Lebanon, and two years later with the UN Transitional Authority in Cambodia. My future mission would combine elements of both UNMOs and armed battalions.

The key assumption on the part of the UN Security Council when establishing a peacekeeping mission is that there is a genuine peace to keep. That assumption proved false in several countries.

About the Author:

Robert Bruce Adolph is a retired UN Chief Security Advisor & US Army Special Forces Lieutenant Colonel. He holds master’s degrees in both International Affairs (Middle East Studies) from American University’s School of International Service and National Security Studies and Strategy from the US Army’s Command and General Staff College.

Adolph served nearly 26-years in multiple Special Forces, Counterterrorism, Psychological Operations, Civil Affairs, Foreign Area Officer, and Military Intelligence command and staff assignments in the US and overseas. He also volunteered to serve on UN peacekeeping missions in Egypt, Israel, Cambodia, Iraq and Kuwait.

After he retired from active military service in 1997, he began a second career as a senior UN Security Advisor. Among his positions he served as the Chief of the Middle East and North Africa in the UN Department of Safety and Security.

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