Mission Improbable

Helen Fogarassy, editor-in-chief of the UNOSOM Weekly Review in Somalia during the 1994 crisis, describes the overwhelmingly positive effect of multinational intervention in the wartorn country. Based on her first-hand observations, Fogarassy argues forcefully in defense of such humanitarian ventures, while simultaneously decrying the oversimplification of the Somalian situation by the world media. She demonstrates how our widespread perception that humanitarian missions in developing countries are doomed to failure is directly related to the images of dead American soldiers being dragged through the streets of Mogadishu. While this picture proves undeniably horrific, success appeared with improved health and educational situations, in addition to a stabilized society with a developing infrastructure and a workable government. Fogarassy's provocative book is sure to make historians, political scientists, and policy makers reexamine the need for humanitarian intervention in other desperate countries.