The Peace by Romeo Dallaire, with Jessica Dee Humphreys

InThe Peace, Romo Dallaire shows us the past, present and futureof war through the prismof his own life. Trained in classic warfare during the Cold War era of mutual deterrence, Dallaire in good faith commandedthe UN's peacekeeping mission forRwanda in 1994, only to see thecountry abandoned and descend into the hell of genocide. The battered, tortured warriorwho emerged from that catastrophe grew determined to help repair the new world disorder to prevent genocide, abolish the use of child soldiers, and find ways to intervene in, even prevent, conflicts in defence of humanity.And so Dallaire helped advance the doctrines of Responsibility to Protect and the Will to Intervene only to witness those initiatives falter because of the same old power politics, national self-interest and general indifference that had allowed the genocide in Rwanda to unfold unchecked.

In his final act, Dallaire has become a warrior working towards a better future in which those old paradigms are rejected and replaced. InThe Peacehe calls out the elements thatundermine true security because they reinforce the dangerous, self-interested belief that "balance" of power andtruces arethe best we can do. Too often we say we are "at peace" because the bombs are falling elsewhere and we, ourselves, are not under attack. Dallaire shows us a path, instead, to what he calls "the peace," a state where, above all else, humanity values the ties that bind us and the planet togetherand acts accordingly. This book is the cri de coeur of a warrior who has been to hell and back and hopes to helpguide us to a better place. (From Random House Canada)