Peacekeeping has become an important topic for scholars, policy makers, and observers of international events. It has become apparent that peacekeeping deployments are and will continue to be the most common use of force for the West. So, it will be important for those concerned to learn from past operations, both immediate and distant. Enter Kimberly Zisk Marten with just such a work.

Marten has written an ambitious book. She makes the comparison between modern peacekeeping and past "colonial" peacekeeping operations by Great Britain, France, and the United States. Her project is both novel and difficult, yet she achieves her goal in showing that strong similarities exist between modern peacekeeping and the colonial missions of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

The author makes the argument that these similarities are important and can help policy makers design strategies for the new era of peacekeeping, what Marten calls "complex peacekeeping operations." (p. 4) She constructs a series of case studies to determine if these similarities are truly there, and, if so, what we can learn from the successes and failures of the colonial past.

Marten uses the cases of complex peacekeeping operations during the 1990s in Haiti, Bosnia, Kosovo, and East Timor. She also provides brief examinations of the current US military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. Her arguments make a strong case that the peacekeeping operations of the 1990s were similar to colonial operations at the end of the nineteenth and into the twentieth century. First among these similarities were the motivations for each of these operations. She notes that national interest trumped any humanitarian goals during the colonial period while, during the 1990s, complex peacekeeping gave more consideration to humanitarian goals rather than national interest. However, she is quick to point out that national interest remains a key piece of modern peacekeeping operations.

Another similarity Marten explores is the comparison between the complex peacekeeping operations of today and the colonialism of the past is that both were campaigns to win the native population's hearts and minds. That is, both sets of missions were undertaken to stabilize and then westernize the target country and population. Further, both peacekeeping operations and colonialism require that the occupying force select the political winners and losers of the new order. They favor those areas and people who are supportive of their efforts and punish those that are not. Such practices occurred in both modern peacekeeping, especially in the Balkans, and in the colonial period she examines.

Marten is able to make a strong argument that these two eras — colonial and modern peacekeeping — are similar in many ways. She, however, is quick to note the differences as well. The brutality with which the colonial powers maintained control was rarely repeated during the modern peacekeeping operations discussed. Also, peacekeeping is generally not done for profit, whereas much of the motivation for colonialism was to maintain control over raw materials in anticipation of the war between the great powers that was anticipated.

The history she tells is extremely interesting, but the more important observations and analysis she provides deal with the failure of complex peace-keeping operations to achieve their stated goals. She argues that these failures are due to a lack of political will on the part of those who engage in such operations. This lack of will builds over time because the goals of complex peace-keeping operations are so ambitious. The goals are not merely to restore order and take care of the immediate humanitarian needs but also to create a pluralistic, Western-style democracy from scratch. This objective, as Marten notes, is difficult, if not impossible. It takes the political will of those engaged to make this happen and that will has rarely been seen in practice.

Marten has written an important book, which is full of ideas for improving the practice of military intervention and peacekeeping. Utilizing a novel way of looking at modern peacekeeping operations, Marten is able to make the case that the past, at least in some ways, does repeat itself. Furthermore, this work adds to an expanding body of research and scholarship addressing our new, post-Cold War world and asks what the role of the West — the international community — should be in terms of peacekeeping and humanitarian missions.

Garic K. Lawrence is a Master's candidate in political science at Eastern Illinois University focusing on international relations and US foreign policy.