Blue Helmet Bureaucrats
United Nations Peacekeeping and the Reinvention of Colonialism, 1945–1971

A history of colonial legacies in United Nations peacekeeping operations in the aftermath of the Second World War.

Margot Tudor (Author)

9781009264921, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 27 April 2023

338 pages, 17 b/w illus. 6 maps
23.5 x 15.8 x 2.4 cm, 0.63 kg

'A wonderful contribution to the study of the UN, decolonization, and the Cold War. It provides a much-needed perspective on the first decades of UN peacekeeping and raises critical questions about the role and function of the organization itself, particularly in its role of promoting neocolonial frameworks.' Thomas Bouril, H-Net: Humanities and Social Science Online

This history of colonial legacies in UN peacekeeping operations from 1945–1971 reveals how United Nations peacekeeping staff reconfigured the functions of global governance and sites of diplomatic power in the post-war world. Despite peacekeeping operations being criticised for their colonial underpinnings, our understanding of the ways in which colonial actors and ideas influenced peacekeeping practices on the ground has been limited and imprecise. In this multi-archival history, Margot Tudor investigates the UN's formative armed missions and uncovers the officials that orchestrated a reinvention of colonial-era hierarchies for Global South populations on the front lines of post-colonial statehood. She demonstrates how these officials exploited their field-based access to perpetuate racial prejudices, plot political interference, and foster protracted inter-communal divisions in post-colonial conflict contexts. Bringing together histories of humanitarianism, decolonisation, and the Cold War, Blue Helmet Bureaucrats sheds new light on the mechanisms through which sovereignty was negotiated and re-negotiated after 1945.

Introduction
1. Testing the waters, 1945–1955
2. Reckoning with Suez, 1956–1959
3. Imperial aspirations, 1960–1961
4. Obstructing self-determination, 1962–1963
5. From stagnation to insignificance, 1964–1971
Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Human rights [JPVH], United Nations & UN agencies [JPSN1], 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000 [HBLW]