Throughout the 1990s our government and its partners in the UN stood by and watched whilst thousands of people were slaughtered. From the war zones of Somalia and Haiti to Rwanda, a lack of resources and trained troops, and the disregard of governments such as our own, ensured the UN peacekeepers were unable to halt murder and genocide. Time and again Linda Polman was witness to these failures. From the terrifying ordeals of the unsupported blue helmets on the ground to the cynical way resolutions are made and undermined by the Security Council, Polman devastatingly shows how and why the UN fails those whom it is charged to protect.