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The author examines the reasons for the relatively poor performance of United Nations peacekeeping operations in countries such as the former Yugoslavia, Somalia, Haiti, and Rwanda, and discusses plans by the UN to overhaul its peacekeeping policy. The author analyzes Chapter 6 of the UN Charter which deals with the management of peacekeeping forces.

Shi'ite Amal Leader Nabih Berri contends that southern Lebanon has now become Israel's Vietnam. Berri, who is also the Speaker of the Lebanese Parliament, adds that the only remedy to the problem is Israel's withdrawal from the Security Zone. Southern Lebanon has been transformed into an area where soldiers of the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) are killed from roadside bombs. 'Preventive patrols' by the IDF have not reduced the frequency of the bombing attacks and they have been helpless in confining the incidents within the Security Zone.

The implementation of the 1995 Dayton Peace Accord relies heavily on the concept of a political federation between the Bosnian Muslims and Croats. Both sides have reluctantly embraced the idea of an externally imposed federation, despite their conflicting aspirations. In practice the Agreement reflects the vested political interests in Bosnia-Herzegovina, which lack the will to effect a speedy implementation of the peace accord. The three-cornered ethnic conflict in Bosnia is far from over and prospects for a political settlement by way of a Muslim-Croat federation appears bleak.

The overall situation in Kosovo that continues to be the most unstable part of the entire Balkan peninsula with racial hatred, ethnic violence, and organized crime is examined. The land of Kosovo is both an economic and political failure and even attempts by the western military intervention to preserve the multiethnic society has failed.

The author, who was part of the event of establishing 'The Blue Line' between Israel and Lebanon, casts a critical eye over the manner in which the 'withdrawal line' was delineated and examines its potential to endure.

At the end of 1997 the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), and their proxies the South Lebanon Army (SLA), remained hopelessly bogged down in a military quagmire which is played out daily in the hills and valleys of Southern Lebanon. As each new week passed more and more Israeli and SLA soldiers fell victim to the Islamic Resistance's (IR) most effective weapon, the roadside bomb, no amount of "preventive patrolling" could manage to reduce the frequency with which these indiscriminate attacks took place, nor did it confine the planting of these devices to the perimeter of the Security Zone. Having recently completed an assignment with the United Nations interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), Brendan O'Shea, of the History Department at University College, Cork Ireland, investigates the claims of Nabih Berri, Leader of the Shi'ite Amal Movement and Speaker of the Lebanese Parliament, that the blood-spattered hills of South Lebanon have now become "Israel's Vietnam." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]