The Cold War has been followed by a decade of regional and ethnic conflicts, massacres, and foreced exiles. Should America assume the role of peacekeeper and chief humanitarian in a world of endless wars and human disasters? Foreign correspondent William Shawcross has spent much of his career in war zones and has had unrivaled access to diplomats, peacekeepers, and global policymakers at the highest levels, including UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, for whom he has high regard. Shawcross takes us behind the lines with him into Cambodia, Bosnia, Somalia, Sierra Leone, East Timor, Rwanda, and Kosovo to show us how complex and costly Western interventions are and how naïve are our hopes of peacekeeping without bloodshed.