Backstabbing for Beginners: A Crash Course in International Diplomacy - Hardcover

Soussan, Michael

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1568583974 ISBN 13: 9781568583976

Publisher: Nation Books, 2008

Synopsis

Rare book

About this title

About the Author:

Michael Soussan has written for numerous publications, including the Wall Street Journal, The New Republic, and the International Herald Tribune. He currently teaches at New York University's Center for Global Affairs and lives in New York City.

From Publishers Weekly:

Soussan, a former program associate for the United Nations, provides an insider's perspective on the U.N.'s oil-for-food scandal in this absorbing memoir. The author was a 24-year-old idealist when he went to work for the U.N.'s recently launched program to provide aid to Iraqi civilians suffering under the economic sanctions imposed after the Gulf War. He found a culture of incompetence where there is no truth but consensus and initiative is highly risky. Amid the turf wars and bureaucratic timidity at the U.N., Saddam Hussein was able to subvert the oil-for-food program with a regimen of bribes and kickbacks. Unable to persuade his superiors to expose the fraud, Soussan resigned in frustration after three years. When the massive fraud surfaced after Saddam's fall, the author published an op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal, which launched an independent investigation that uncovered billions of dollars in bribes and implicated global corporations, sovereign governments and U.N. officials—including Secretary-General Kofi Annan's son. Soussan brings provocative wit, a keen eye for detail and a knack for revealing anecdotes to this important account of the rampant greed, hypocrisy and cynicism festering behind the United Nations' humanitarian credo. (Nov.)
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About this edition

• Publisher: Nation Books
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 1568583974
• ISBN 13: 9781568583976
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 352