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My book is the true story of my experiences on humanitarian and peacekeeping missions for the United Nations. I dealt with child-soldiers, blood diamonds, a double hostage-taking, an invasion by brutal guerrillas, an emergency aerial evacuation, a desperate hostage recover mission, tribal gunfights, refugee camp violence, suicide bombings, and institutional corruption. My UN career brought me face to face with the best and worst of human nature and I share it all in my book.

You will find my story lives up to its promise of “violence, corruption, betrayal and redemption” during my years as a senior United Nations security chief in the most difficult and demanding security region on the planet. As a former Green Beret and retired lieutenant colonel I explain the distinctions between soldiering, peacekeeping, and working for UN humanitarian and development agencies as I discuss my career which took me to Liberia, Yemen, Sierra Leone, Iraq, and more. Beyond corruption and bureaucratic inefficiencies, I encountered many life-and-death challenges. The most devastating was the jihadist bombing of the UN Headquarters in Baghdad in 2003.

After that suicide bombing, I was deeply angry and hurt. There were twenty-two dead and over one-hundred fifty wounded, including my wife. The people that were to blame never faced accountability for their lack of action. I had to set the record straight by telling the truth, no matter the personal cost. I felt the call to action because nobody else would. I had never felt so alone and utterly vulnerable in my life.

What may make my book a page-turner is that every word is real. Every emotion is raw. Every mistake has consequences. Contrary to popular belief, death seldom has meaning. Violence is often proven stupid. And, finally, justice is not always served. Reality, when reading it, cannot be denied, and is recognized by readers. The lessons learned are invaluable.

This is the astonishing true story of a US Army Special Forces soldier who became a warrior for peace. In his humanitarian and peacekeeping missions for the United Nations he dealt with child-soldiers, blood diamonds, a double hostage-taking, an invasion by brutal guerrillas, an emergency aerial evacuation, a desperate hostage recovery mission, tribal gunfights, refugee camp violence, suicide bombings, and institutional corruption. His UN career brought him face to face with the best and worst of human nature and he shares it all here.

Enjoy an Excerpt

The unarmed variety of peacekeeping is a different sort of military mission. UN member states provide officers to serve as military observers. The most common term is UNMO, short for UN Military Observer. The general mission statement is to “observe and report.” UNMOs observe the status of the peace and write reports for the gratification of the UN Security Council that establishes the mandate under which the mission operates. Essentially, unarmed UNMOs are placed on the ground between former belligerents. Their lives are then held hostage to the peace process. Although little-reported, it is not uncommon for military observers to die in the performance of their duties. I found this type of peacekeeping service, in the abstract, to be an honorable endeavor. The reality, though, was sometimes something else entirely. As a matter of historical import, approximately three thousand eight hundred peacekeepers have died in the performance of their duties around the globe.

Another type of peacekeeping involves the use of armed battalions. I had seen this permutation in 1990 while serving with UN Observer Group-Lebanon in the form of the UN Interim Forces in Lebanon, and two years later with the UN Transitional Authority in Cambodia. My future mission would combine elements of both UNMOs and armed battalions.

The key assumption on the part of the UN Security Council when establishing a peacekeeping mission is that there is a genuine peace to keep. That assumption proved false in several countries.

About the Author: Robert Bruce Adolph is a retired UN Chief Security Advisor & US Army Special Forces Lieutenant Colonel. He holds master’s degrees in both International Affairs (Middle East Studies) from American University’s School of International Service and National Security Studies and Strategy from the US Army’s Command and General Staff College.

Adolph served nearly 26-years in multiple Special Forces, Counterterrorism, Psychological Operations, Civil Affairs, Foreign Area Officer, and Military Intelligence command and staff assignments in the US and overseas. He also volunteered to serve on UN peacekeeping missions in Egypt, Israel, Cambodia, Iraq and Kuwait.

After he retired from active military service in 1997, he began a second career as a senior UN Security Advisor. Among his positions he served as the Chief of the Middle East and North Africa in the UN Department of Safety and Security.

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