Blue Helmet: My Year as a UN Peacekeeper in South Sudan tells the story of a country, a conflict, and the institution of peacekeeping through the eyes of a senior American military officer working on the ground in one of the most dangerous countries on the planet. South Sudan is rich in natural resources, and its fertile soil could make it the breadbasket of East Africa. Yet it remains the poorest and most corrupt country in the region, plagued by disease, famine, and ethnic strife. Abductions, sexual violence, death, and displacement affect tens of thousands of people each year.
Edward H. Carpenter pulls readers into his world, allowing them to experience the powerful, poignant realities of being a peacekeeper in South Sudan. In the process, the author reveals how the United Nations really conducts its missions: what it tolerates and how it often falls short of achieving the aims of its charter—equal rights, justice, and economic advancement for all people—with the use of armed forces limited to serving those common interests by keeping the peace and preventing the scourge of war. It is a story that is eye-opening, unsettling, and always compelling.
Global leaders may fairly claim that they have done everything they can to help South Sudan help itself: they’ve dispatched thousands of peacekeepers and provided billions of dollars in aid. So why is the UN still struggling to fulfill its mandate to protect civilians and safeguard the delivery of humanitarian assistance? What could be done better? Bringing the reader to the forefront of action, Blue Helmet answers these questions and raises others about how modern peacekeeping missions are organized and overseen, shedding light on some of the contradictions at the heart of peacekeeping.
Edward H. Carpenter is a retired lieutenant colonel, a veteran of America’s “Long Wars,” who served in the U.S. Army and Marines for a total of twenty-nine years, from Afghanistan to Japan, Indonesia to Saudi Arabia. He has written for the Washington Post and is the author of Steven Pressfield’s “The Warrior Ethos”: One Marine Officer’s Critique and Counterpoint. Carpenter is the founder of the nonprofit organization World Without War, to which he is donating his royalties from Blue Helmet.
List of Illustrations
Foreword by A. K. Bardalai
Preface
Abbreviations
Part 1. The Call to Adventure
1. The Worst Day
2. Origin Story
3. Big Men, Strong Women
4. A Short History of South Sudan
5. Africa Wants to Kill You
6. The Land That TIME Forgot
7. Through American Eyes
8. Shoot, Move, and Resuscitate
9. Into Africa
10. A Short History of Peacekeeping
11. Disastrous Passions
12. Louder Than Words
Part 2. Crossing the Threshold
13. Boots on the Ground
14. Colleagues, Caveats, and Contingency Plans
15. Freedom of Movement
16. The Lay of the Land
17. Easy Buttons and Hard Truths
18. An Outsider Looks In
19. International Relations
20. A Disturbance in the Force
21. The Agony of JMAC
22. Coordinated Assessment
23. Orders in Work
24. Unity!
25. Women, Peace, and Security
26. Rhythm and the Rains
27. The Tigers of South Sudan
28. Inconceivable
29. UNMISS Inaction
30. Fraying at the Edges
31. Things Fall Apart
32. No Country for Young Men
33. Strong Medicine for Tanks
34. Riek Machar versus the World
35. Until the First Bullet Flies
36. Juba Social Club
37. Nonworking Group
38. Friendsgiving
39. Clash of Clans
40. The Road Less Traveled
41. Up the Creek
42. A Long December
43. The Far Edge of the Empire
44. History Will Judge Us
45. Hub and Spoke
46. Not All Lives
47. A Sad State of Affairs
48. The Chance to Make a Difference
49. Maybe Just Once
50. Reconciliation and Rumors of War
51. Peace on Paper, Army on the Move
52. Troubled Waters
53. This Is It, Your Excellency
Part 3. The Ordeal
54. Crimes against Humanity
55. Come to Count the Dead
56. Potemkin Would Be Proud
57. Death by a Thousand Cuts
58. That Safari Way of Life
59. Calling It What It Is
60. Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned
61. Juggling Act
62. Love in the Time of Coronavirus
63. Such Sweet Sorrow
Part 4. The Long Road Back
64. The Bitter End?
65. For the Record
66. August and Everything After
67. Admiring the Problem
68. Changing the Guard, Rewriting the Histories
69. Post-Traumatic
70. Good Offices
71. Slow-Moving Crises, Widespread Problems
72. How to Change the World
Afterword
Acknowledgments
Appendix A: Ways to Improve the Protection of Civilians
Appendix B: Policy Recommendations for the United States
Appendix C: Resources and Recommended Reading
Notes
Index
