Why the truth doesn't always come out when the UN goes in

We Did Nothing

A hugely important and compelling book which received huge critical attention in trade paperback, absolutely perfect for the student market.

Linda Polman's We Did Nothing: Why the truth doesn't always come out with the UN goes in is an eye-opening account of peace-keeping operations across the globe. 
 
In recent years our newspapers and televisions have brought us stories of the failure of the UN to keep the peace in the modern world. How often have our journalists, our politicians and charity workers turned around and accused the UN of weakness in the face of violence? During the 1990s Polman visited UN peacekeeping missions in Somalia, Haiti and Rwanda to try to understand how resolutions are made and how the peace is lost. The result is this extraordinary, disturbing and utterly compelling book. 
 
We Did Nothing shows what the resolutions mean for the people who must live in these battle fields, and for the UN soldiers who are sent to bring order to the terrifying chaos. 
 
'A small classic of man's inhumanity to man' Sunday Telegraph 
 
'One of the most affecting pieces of writing about man's inhumanity this side of Primo Levi' Guardian 
 
'What Michael Herr's Dispatches was to war in the era of Vietnam, this is to the peace keeping era of the nineties' Evening Standard 
 
Linda Polman has been a freelance journalist for Dutch radio, television and newspapers. Since the publication of her book in Holland Polman has lectured to government, military and academic audiences throughout the region. She currently lives in Sierra Leone.

Linda Polman has been a freelance journalist for Dutch radio, television and newspapers. Since the publication of her book in Holland Polman has lectured to government, military and academic audiences throughout the region. She currently lives in Sierra Leone and is at work on her next book.

In recent years our newspapers and televisions have brought us stories of the failure of the UN to keep the peace in the modern world. How often have our journalists, our politicians and charity workers turned around and accused the UN of weakness in the face of violence? During the 1990s Polman visited UN peacekeeping missions in Somalia, Haiti and Rwanda to try to understand how resolutions are made and how the peace is lost. The result is this extraordinary, disturbing and utterly compelling book. 
 
We Did Nothing shows what the resolutions mean for the people who must live in these battle fields, and for the UN soldiers who are sent to bring order to the terrifying chaos. 
 
'A small classic of man's inhumanity to man' 
Sunday Telegraph

Linda Polman

Marvellous... cool, brusque, fearless and disillusioned...carries echoes of the African writings of Evelyn Waugh and Graham Greene

Linda Polman is one of the finest reporting journalists of the modern age - she is gutsy, intellectually penetrating and far from naïve

The Story of Aid and War in Modern Times

From Rwanda to Afghanistan, from Sudan to Iraq, this brilliantly written and at times blackly funny work of reportage shows how the humanitarian aid industry, the media and warmongers the world over are locked in a cycle of mutual support. 
 
Drawing on her decades of first-hand experience, Linda Polman's gripping narrative introduces us to the key players in this twisted game, to the aid-workers and the warlords themselves. Among many others, there is the Bible-bashing one-man NGO who rescued two Sierra Leonean girls from life in an amputee camp - only to change his mind and try to send them back again; the director of the World Bank in Kabul who estimates that 35-40 per cent of all aid in Afghanistan is looted or lost; and the rebel soldier who explains that war does not mean fighting: 'W.A.R. means Waste All Resources. Destroy everything. Then you people will come and fix it.' 
 
War Games is an urgent and riveting account from the front lines of the humanitarian aid industry by one of the most intrepid and brilliantly incisive journalists of our times.

War Games

About us

About Us (Header 4)

Best-Jane-Austen-quotes_Online-Desktop_Penguin

James-Baldwin

Marian-Keyes

haruki-murakami-320×320-1

Richard-Osman

Malorie Blackman

Lisa-Jewell

Charlie-Mackesy

Authors (Header 3)

Children&#039;s

Company

Discover

Fiction

Non-fiction

Penguin Classics

Penguin Shop (Header 5)

Useful links

Work with us

sectionTitle

isEnabled

anchor

anchorLabel

prhuk/featured-book

prhuk/praise-section

maxBooks

showViewMore

prhuk/books-section

hideAuthorAlert

formName

iterableDivision

iterableBrand

buttonText

description

heading

legalText

successHeading

successText

image

alignment

variation

prhuk/email-section

prhuk/series-section

prhuk/biography-section

prhuk/articles-section

prhuk-authors

Penguin Shop: 15% off for a limited time with code PENGUINXMAS2025

Little Black Classics Box Set

White Nights

Frankenstein

Linda Polman

Praise for War Games

Marvellous... cool, brusque, fearless and disillusioned...carries echoes of the African writings of Evelyn Waugh and Graham Greene

Linda Polman is one of the finest reporting journalists of the modern age - she is gutsy, intellectually penetrating and far from naïve

Books by Linda Polman

Follow penguin

Follow ladybird

Follow puffin

Sign up to the Penguin newsletter