Surviving the United Nations

B. Adolph Robert

Description

This is the gripping true story of 4 intense years in the life of a US Army Special Forces soldier, who joins the UN and then goes on to an assignment in Iraq at the time of the deadly jihadist bombing attack of the UN headquarters.Other missions in some of the worlds most dangerous countries include murderous child-soldiers; blood diamonds; a double hostage-taking; the rape of innocents; an invasion by brutal guerrillas; an emergency aerial evacuation; a desperate mission to recover hundreds of prisoners; tribal gunfights and unusual kidnappings; refugee camp violence; a deadly jihadist suicide bombing attack; and institutional corruption.The author has the unusual distinction of being twice fired and twice promoted by the UN. Discovering why makes for fascinating reading.

Sujets

• Jihad
• Djihad
• Irak
• Iraq War
• Iraq
• Military history
• Histoire

Informations

• Publié par: eBookIt.com
• Date de parution: 16 avril 2020
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780578505862
• Langue: English

Extrait

Praise for Surviving the United Nations
 
Robert Adolph is the real deal, a Special Forces officer, United Nations security expert, and scholar in the most dangerous countries of the world. His life mattered in a way that those of the famous often don’t.
— Robert Kaplan , New York Times multiple best-selling author
 
No rose-colored glasses here. Bob Adolph lays bare his unique experiences in pursuit of idealistic humanitarian purposes while in some of the toughest places on the planet. Sometimes his most dangerous opponents were in the very organization of which he was a part. To paraphrase from the book, Lonesome Dove, “he survived because he dealt with things as he found them...not as he wished they would be.”
— Peter J. Schoomaker, General, US Army (retired), former Chief of Staff of the US Army
 
Bob Adolph has written a dramatic and engaging record of his early years of service with the UN. His recollections of difficult and dangerous assignments in Sierra Leone, Yemen, and Iraq are vividly portrayed. In fact, he nearly paid with his life while trying to convince senior UN management that their security precautions in Baghdad in 2003 were woefully inadequate. These are wrenching yet illuminating examples of working inside the UN system. The devastating suicide bombing attack in Baghdad—killing 22 and wounding over 150—is painfully yet accurately described and places both the author and his often-startling book in categories by themselves. The very well written concluding chapters are a testament to Bob’s refusal to quit until the fight is done.
— Gregory Starr , former Director of the US State Department’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security, Assistant Secretary of State, and UN Under-Secretary General of the Department of Safety and Security
 
Colonel Bob Adolph is the epitome of the Special Forces officer: infinitely competent, completely unflappable, and absolutely loyal. For well over two decades he served in the US Army’s Special Operations and Military Intelligence communities. Following his retirement from the active military he chose yet another service organization, the United Nations. There he made an indelible mark in several of the globe’s most dangerous regions. He evacuated Freetown in Sierra Leone just ahead of invading Revolutionary United Front guerillas; later he consulted successfully on tribal kidnappings in Yemen; still later, he led the UN’s security establishment in Iraq at the time of a devastating jihadist suicide bombing attack. His memoir often reads like a cracking good adventure novel. But this is no work of fiction—it is, instead, history.
— Ben Lawton , Associate Professor, College of Liberal Arts, Purdue University, and co-editor of the book Revisioning Terrorism: A Humanistic Approach
 
Bob Adolph served as a military officer with solid training and experience in Special Operations, leading to his designation as one of Robert Kaplan’s “ Imperial Grunts ” in Yemen. Extensive academic pursuits round out his intellectual credentials. His UN-Iraq experience, where I first knew him, thrust Bob both under the gun and into the spotlight because of a massive suicide bombing. His actions that day saved many lives, perhaps even my own. He later performed UN Security Advisor duties in Cairo, where I benefited greatly from his guidance. He went on to serve as the UN Chief of the Middle East and North Africa in New York, where he focused heavily on the Libya crisis. His extraordinarily insightful book is unusually sensitive, brutally candid, and a must-read for anyone striving to understand the United Nations.
— Paul Johnson , former UN security officer and survivor of the 19 August 2003 Baghdad suicide bombing attack on the Canal Hotel
 
In this engrossing tale, Bob Adolph has provided us with a remarkable account of his service with the UN as a senior security advisor in some of the most challenging and dangerous countries in the world. I came to appreciate his resourcefulness, dedication, and decency while heading up the development and humanitarian work of the UN in Yemen. I also witnessed his courageous actions, which saved lives and were crucial to facilitating our mission. Later, following the tragic attack on our premises in Baghdad, he summoned up a different kind of courage by speaking truth to power, taking on a Kafkaesque bureaucracy that sought a scapegoat for reasons of political expediency and to cover up the serious shortcomings of senior UN officials. A larger than life figure, Bob’s professionalism, integrity, and commitment to the values and principles of the UN are on display throughout this noteworthy book.
— James W. Rawley , former UN Assistant Secretary-General
 
This is a noteworthy and very personal story of what happened well before, during and after the August 19, 2003 attack on the UN Headquarters in Baghdad, the Canal Hotel. The actual tale is known only to a few, and there is nobody still alive better suited to tell it than Bob Adolph. He provided immediate leadership in the rubble, saving lives and restoring some semblance of order amidst the chaos and confusion in the wake of the suicide bombing that devastated the UN globally. Bob expertly details a critically important chapter in the larger history of the War of Terror via his narrative. A riveting book, Bob’s tenacity, vulnerability, and integrity are at turns heartbreaking and inspiring.
— Christopher Ankersen , Clinical Associate Professor, New York University Center for Global Affairs and editor of the book Understanding Global Terror
 
For many years Bob Adolph has been a trusted colleague and friend. As someone who knows him, allow me to inform his readers that he will not surrender until the truth prevails. During the tragic Baghdad bombings, I was his Chief of Desk at UN Headquarters in New York. Bob’s reflections of events before, during, and after these attacks are accurate. He regularly communicated warnings to his superiors in both Iraq and New York concerning UN staff vulnerability in Baghdad. Those warnings were ignored. The facts that are finally unveiled in his book are wholly the result of his character: a never-quit nature, professionalism, and ethical standards of conduct. This tragic yet fascinating record of actual events represents his heartfelt attempt to expose the truth to anyone with the eyes to see it. Every UN staff member should read this book.
— Annette Leijenaar , Head of Peace Operations and Peace-building, Institute for Security Studies, Pretoria Office, South Africa
 
Finally, a book that captures the devastating effects of the massive jihadist vehicular suicide bomb attack on the UN Headquarters in Baghdad on August 19, 2003. Chief Security Advisor Bob Adolph skillfully details the gripping story behind outrageous institutional failures to exercise its duty of care to protect staff members. As part of the Security Cell in Baghdad leading up to the devastation that left 22 people dead and many more horrifically injured, I witnessed Bob’s daily gargantuan struggle to convince management that there was a credible threat to the UN in Baghdad. Expert security advice based on detailed risk assessments were consistently ignored leading to the single worst preventable tragedy in UN history. Just over a month later we faced another attack that finally drove the us out of Iraq. A must read for all who want an insider view of what transpired during the organization’s darkest days and a good man fighting to do the right thing. Powerfully argued, full of critically important observations and insights, the author takes you through a tumultuous, and at times painful early career stretching from West Africa to the Middle East and more.
— Andries Dreyer , former UNICEF Regional Security Officer for the Middle East and North Africa and current Global Director of Security Training for World Vision International
 
As a result of years of practical experience in global conflict and defense, Robert Adolph expertly unravels the complexities of the idealistic intentions of the United Nations as well as the dialectical tensions resulting from attempts at their implementation. Through artful narrative, Robert transports readers through the nuances of deep-seated historical conflicts between actors across multiple national boundaries, legal and political systems, linguistic challenges, and vastly differing cultural and organizational assumptions. Readers, both highly informed and desiring to be so, will benefit from the firsthand lessons sorely won through decades of service while grappling with the multi-faceted organization that is the United Nations. Robert’s book serves to make deeper meaning of the many conflicts in which the organization is involved and its attempts to fulfill its mission and keep peace. Any academic interested in gaining greater knowledge of how United Nations’ field missions in humanitarian, development, political, and peacekeeping operations are actually accomplished will gain significant insight.
— Elena Tartaglione Steiner, PhD , Center for Strategic Communication, Arizona State University and Steinbeis, Hochschule, Berlin
 
Lieutenant Colonel Bob Adolph’s unforgettable and brutally frank history provides graphic meaning to the unattributed quote, “You are either at the table or on the menu.”
— William Garrison , Major General, US Army (retired), former Commanding General of the Joint Special Operations Command and the US Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School
 
A superb, painfully honest and moving account of a life lived amid the great and lesser crises of our time, this book captures not only stunning violence and grim tragedies on multiple continents, but also does a great service by demonstrating what happens when on-the-ground urgency collides with aid bureaucracies. Bob Adolph’s first-hand account of UN operations is alternately inspiring, enlightening, and infuriating (the latter when a fa