A UN 'legion'

"This book examines the origins, evolution and future of proposals for a UN 'Legion'- a permanent military force recruited, trained and deployed by the UN. The idea has grown, re-emerged and evolved in direct connection with the development of UN international military forces. The proposed universal soldiers have been seen as the future representatives of a modern world constabulary, international police or humanitarian chivalry. They have also invariably evoked the idea of mercenaries and resurrected fears of supranational government and a 'world army'. Yet, the concretization, in one form or another, of the project of a UN 'Legion' may well be conditional on the viability of the original Utopia, and vice versa. The extreme polarization of the debate, reflecting a tendency to negate the inherent contradictions of reality, reminds us of the historical dimension of the building of international organization, a 'work in progress'."--Jacket.