It was an exclusive lunch at a high-end Manhattan restaurant on 7 March 2011. United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and his entire A-team were present. It soon became clear that the main item on the menu was Libya, where it was alleged that the forces of Muammar Gaddafi were rapidly advancing on the rebel stronghold of Benghazi to crush all opposition. Over an $80-per-head lunch, a small group of the world’s most important diplomats from countries represented on the Security Council discussed the possibility of the use of force, ostensibly to protect civilians, but in reality to effect regime change. As things turned out, the Council’s authorization came only ten days later, and all hell broke loose.

Hardeep Singh Puri, India’s envoy to the UN at the time, reveals the Council’s whimsical decision making and the ill-thought-out itch to intervene on the part of some of its permanent members. In contrast, on Syria—which too was unravelling at the same time—the Libyan experience and differences within the Council led to a complete policy paralysis. The result, made worse by the earlier intervention in Iraq, has been the creation of the ISIS and the biggest refugee crisis since the Second World War.

Perilous Interventions shows how some recent instances of the use of force—not just in Libya and Syria but also in Yemen and Crimea, as well as India’s misadventure in Sri Lanka in the 1980s—have gone disastrously wrong. Puri focuses on the syndrome of intervening nations turning away from the scene once their interests have been achieved. He also highlights India’s key role in warning against interventions and attempts at regime change.

Treading the path of reason and caution, Perilous Interventions calls out world powers on their misdeeds and cries for a reform of the global political order.

About the Author

HARDEEP SINGH PURI is a former Indian Foreign Service officer who served as the Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations in Geneva from 2002 to 2005 and in New York from 2009 to 2013, coinciding with the period in 2011–12 when India was a non-permanent member of the Security Council. He was president of the Council in August 2011 and November 2012, and chairman of its Counter-Terrorism Committee from January 2011 to February 2013. He was previously stationed at important diplomatic posts in Brazil, Japan, Sri Lanka and the UK.