International humanitarian icon and bestselling author General Roméo Dallaire guides readers on a crucial and inspiring journey from past wars through post-modern conflict toward a vision of lasting peace.
In The Peace, Roméo Dallaire shows us the past, present and future of war through the prism of his own life. Trained in classic warfare during the Cold War era of mutual deterrence, Dallaire in good faith commanded the UN’s peacekeeping mission for Rwanda in 1994, only to see the country abandoned and descend into the hell of genocide. The battered, tortured warrior who 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. In The Peace he calls out the elements that undermine true security because they reinforce the dangerous, self-interested belief that “balance” of power and truces are the 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 together—and acts accordingly. This book is the cri de coeur of a warrior who has been to hell and back and hopes to help guide us to a better place.
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People need to read this book because it puts forward our common humanity, reminds us of what should be our north star—our values—and that we need a rule-based international order if we want to make non-indifference a reality. It is also a great reflection on leadership for current and future peacemakers.
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Ambassador Frederic Gateretse-Ngoga, senior adviser on international partnerships, the African Union Border Programme and Regional Security Mechanism