Back Stage and Behind the Curtain

Abstract

Blue Helmets and Black Markets: The Business of Survival in the Siege of Sarajevo. By Peter Andreas. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2008. 208 pp., $25.00 hardcover (ISBN13: 978-0-8014-4355-8). Traditional analyses of peace operations and military intervention have largely focused on the same actors and events that dominate news headlines. Nation-states, international organizations, and occasionally key subnational actors dominate the narratives. In addition, the spotlight is largely kept on military and security-related concerns, with macro-indicators and actions that represent critical junctures at the forefront. For example, the voluminous studies on UN and NATO intervention in Bosnia give significant attention to combat interactions, diplomatic initiatives, and ultimately the Dayton Accords. The book here breaks the mold by examining the players and actions that most scholars and commentators miss when they examine interventions. The siege of Sarajevo from 1992 to 1995 was perhaps the most famous incident in the Bosnia War. Peter Andreas redirects the reader beyond the well-documented saga of UN, NATO, and Serb forces to the actions that took place at the micro-level. It is a tale of crime, corruption, and unintended consequences whose effects are still felt today in the Balkans. The author's overarching conclusion is that behind the scenes, the international community's efforts at humanitarian assistance to the besieged population was a terrible failure, largely because those efforts empowered corrupt forces (exogenous and endogenous to the city) who increased the suffering …