Can Attack Helicopters Save U.N. Peacekeeping?

President Obama is leading a new effort to bolster the U.N.’s blue helmets. But are better weapons and tens of thousands of new troops enough to tamp the flames of war?

BY JAMES TRAUB-SEPTEMBER 28, 2015

Does U.N. peacekeeping matter? President Barack Obama believes that it does — and he has advocated the cause more forcefully than any of his predecessors since George H. W. Bush, who once looked to the U.N. to help forge a “new world order.” The catastrophes of Somalia, Rwanda, and Bosnia purged that dream forever; but from literally his first day in office, when the United States paid off its outstanding arrears at the U.N., Obama has championed peacekeeping as a low-cost and effective means of policing turbulent places. His administration has spent the last year rounding up fresh commitments from troop-contributing countries; at the U.N. General Assembly session this week, Obama will convene a group of more than 50 heads of state who have made such pledges, and will announce them like so many swells at an annual philanthropic dinner.

Can Attack Helicopters Save U.N. Peacekeeping by Thavam Ratna