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Author:   Edward H. Carpenter ,  Apurba Kumar Bardalai
Publisher:   Potomac Books Inc
Imprint:   Potomac Books Inc
ISBN:  

9781640125995

ISBN 10:   164012599
Pages:   408
Publication Date:   01 March 2025
Audience:   General/trade ,  General
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand  
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Table of Contents

List of Illustrations Foreword by A. K. Bardalai Preface Abbreviations Part 1. The Call to Adventure 1. The Worst Day 2. Origin Story 3. Big Men, Strong Women 4. A Short History of South Sudan 5. Africa Wants to Kill You 6. The Land That TIME Forgot 7. Through American Eyes 8. Shoot, Move, and Resuscitate 9. Into Africa 10. A Short History of Peacekeeping 11. Disastrous Passions 12. Louder Than Words Part 2. Crossing the Threshold 13. Boots on the Ground 14. Colleagues, Caveats, and Contingency Plans 15. Freedom of Movement 16. The Lay of the Land 17. Easy Buttons and Hard Truths 18. An Outsider Looks In 19. International Relations 20. A Disturbance in the Force 21. The Agony of JMAC 22. Coordinated Assessment 23. Orders in Work 24. Unity! 25. Women, Peace, and Security 26. Rhythm and the Rains 27. The Tigers of South Sudan 28. Inconceivable 29. UNMISS Inaction 30. Fraying at the Edges 31. Things Fall Apart 32. No Country for Young Men 33. Strong Medicine for Tanks 34. Riek Machar versus the World 35. Until the First Bullet Flies 36. Juba Social Club 37. Nonworking Group 38. Friendsgiving 39. Clash of Clans 40. The Road Less Traveled 41. Up the Creek 42. A Long December 43. The Far Edge of the Empire 44. History Will Judge Us 45. Hub and Spoke 46. Not All Lives 47. A Sad State of Affairs 48. The Chance to Make a Difference 49. Maybe Just Once 50. Reconciliation and Rumors of War 51. Peace on Paper, Army on the Move 52. Troubled Waters 53. This Is It, Your Excellency Part 3. The Ordeal 54. Crimes against Humanity 55. Come to Count the Dead 56. Potemkin Would Be Proud 57. Death by a Thousand Cuts 58. That Safari Way of Life 59. Calling It What It Is 60. Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned 61. Juggling Act 62. Love in the Time of Coronavirus 63. Such Sweet Sorrow Part 4. The Long Road Back 64. The Bitter End? 65. For the Record 66. August and Everything After 67. Admiring the Problem 68. Changing the Guard, Rewriting the Histories 69. Post-Traumatic 70. Good Offices 71. Slow-Moving Crises, Widespread Problems 72. How to Change the World Afterword Acknowledgments Appendix A: Ways to Improve the Protection of Civilians Appendix B: Policy Recommendations for the United States Appendix C: Resources and Recommended Reading Notes Index

Reviews

“Blue Helmet reveals the inside story of the challenges of protecting civilians in conflict. . . . If you are passionate about the protection of civilians, this book will prove an invaluable resource—because Carpenter doesn’t just show what is wrong with existing civilian protection measures; he offers practical advice on how to fix them.”—Marc Garlasco, division chief for the U.S. Department of Defense Civilian Protection Center of Excellence “Edward Carpenter has painted a rich and incisive portrait of what it means to be a warrior on a mission of peace in Africa. Carpenter draws on the personal details of his own experience to demonstrate what kind of individual is inclined to work in such contexts, and of the impact that the mission has on the person. I learned a lot about South Sudan, but also a great deal about how peacekeeping operations function and how those who keep the peace also keep their sanity.”—Robert Farley, senior lecturer at the Patterson School of Diplomacy and International Commerce and senior editor at Lawyers, Guns, and Money “Edward Carpenter’s Blue Helmet is an insider’s story about a world that most of us will never know. He has written a shocking, informative, at times hard, and yet very entertaining memoir: a human-sized portrait of a UN Peacekeeper in South Sudan. This book is a bridge between cultures, an action-packed tour, and a wise look at how countries—and the people in them—become themselves.”—Elisabeth Sharp McKetta, author of She Never Told Me about the Ocean and Awake with Asashoryu and Other Essays

Author Information

Edward H. Carpenter is a retired lieutenant colonel, a veteran of America’s “Long Wars” who served in the U.S. Army and Marines for a total of twenty-nine years, from Afghanistan to Japan, Indonesia to Saudi Arabia. He has written for the Washington Post and is the author of Steven Pressfield’s “The Warrior Ethos”: One Marine Officer’s Critique and Counterpoint. Carpenter is the founder of the nonprofit organization World Without War, to which he is donating his royalties from Blue Helmet. 

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