A very perceptive analysis of the problems that affect peacekeeping and humanitarian relief operations. This is not an optimistic work. Jett uses the full range of U.N. peacekeeping & humanitarian assistance operations since 1947 to examine the question of why some succeed and most seem to fail. He makes a number of important observations about the problems of peacekeeping. Noting that peacekeeping has been most effective in interstate conflicts, he goes on to point out that there is no general agreement as to what constitute appropriate grounds for international intervention in the internal affairs of a state.

In Inside the Asylum, Jed Babbin argues that the U.S. has attempted to work with the United Nations in the past, and shows why this route has always failed. Babbin goes deep inside the UN, exploring the inner workings of this out-of-control organization that richly deserves the nickname "the Asylum." He details how the UN has eagerly adopted the role of handmaiden to international terrorism and explores the outrageous oil-for-food program that shows that it is the UN, not the U.S., that has sold its soul for oil. The UN, Babbin explains, is riddled with mismanagement and incompetence: his tour of the UN bureaucracy is positively hair-raising. But the UN's fatal flaws are deeper; they're built into its very nature, and they're getting worse.