THE UNITED NATIONS, PEACE AND SECURITY Ramesh Thakur Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006. 388pp, $32.99 cloth (ISBN 0521671256).Very few observers of United Nations system have written about organization with as much insight as Ramesh Thakur. With one foot in academia (as senior vice rector of United Nations University in Tokyo) and other in global policy arena (as UN assistant secretary general), Thakur penned The United Nations, Peace and security-a remarkably frank and honest volume that is both sensitively critical and eruditely insightful, if somewhat preachy, on exhilarating and sometimes disappointing efforts of UN to live up to its charter mandate.It is noteworthy that Thakur's book hovers over UN's experience during past 10 years or so. The author left mainstream academia in April 1998 to join United Nations University (UNU) as vice rector. Over that span of time, Thakur has published opinion pieces in notable newspapers on all manner of subjects related to UN and its post-Cold War role. Over that period, Thakur helped draft report, commissioned by Canada, on intervention and state sovereignty. This report advocated new global norm on the responsibility to protect-R2P-which is now embraced by several UN member as answer for dealing with atrocities committed against individuals in rising cases of intrastate conflicts. Thakur was one of key authors of second report by past UN secretary General Kofi Annan on reforming UN, and as he himself puts it in book, he was an insider who in recent years was heart of some of most important taking place in and around UN (21).So, in sense, The United Nations, Peace and Security, is more than author's critical scholarly analysis and assessment of contemporary peace and security role of world body. It is also personal reflective exercise. Thakur claims that it is, in part, dispassionate analysis, in part intellectual reflection, in part personal memoir. But anyone who reads this work will realize that author is far from dispassionate. In fact, entire volume brims with unveiled passion of someone who holds strong normative commitment to goals and principles of UN, yet at same time is frustrated by political bottlenecks that impede promise of this organization and tarnish its reputation (21).In essence, this volume is about normative shift taking place within UN as the doctrine of mass atrocities against is elevated to same level of collective responsibility as preventing and repelling armed aggression against states (i). In other words, it is tome about security-i.e., putting people first when it comes to security. As such, it challenges dominant neorealist concern with state security. This chosen intellectual direction places author squarely in camp of idealists, liberals, and constructivists who conceptualize security in broadest of terms or, as Thakur himself puts it, in camp of peace community-an intellectual community that distinguishes itself from those in strategic studies and changes focus from state downwards to individuals and upwards to international community. While threats posed by state agents to individuals and groups within state are conceptually alien to strategic studies, they are central to peace research (23).But unlike some of his peace colleagues, Thakur is careful to point out that security is neither in opposition to national security nor substitute for it. He, in fact, calls for acceptance of a pluralistic coexistence of two concepts, realizing that there are times when national security may still prove more durable and satisfying as analytical prism through which to view security threats and responses (90).The difficulty with making human security and R2P norms more robust, as author acknowledges, is that UN-the institution responsible for normative development of international community-is in serious crisis. …