What's Wrong with the United Nations and How to Fix It

What's Wrong with the United Nations and How to Fix It, Thomas G. Weiss (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2008), 292 pp., $65 doth, $20 paper. A lot of people, expert and amateur, talk incessantly and vaguely about how the United Nations needs "reforming." Very few actually know how the system works, how profound its crisis is, and what fundamental change is needed. Among those who do know is Thomas G. Weiss. In his newest book, Weiss is not interested in tinkering with the UN--his proposals are bold and far-reaching. Drawing on his own experience within the UN system (he has held several UN positions) and studying it from outside, Weiss clears away a lot of the debris of superficial critiques to uncover the deeper explanations for why the more world problems become interconnected and global in scope the less the UN seems able to cope with them.