This lively narrated story of the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone includes a wealth of insight and information on the key challenges and opportunities that the mission has faced since its inception. After the Government of Sierra Leone and the Revolutionary United Front signed the Lomé Peace Agreement on 7 July 1999, the UN deployed peacekeepers alongside the ECOMOG troops to supervise the ceasefire agreement and the disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration of the factions' combatants. In the book's initial part, Olonisakin sheds light on the serious flaws in UNAMSIL's initial deployment. Certain national contingents lacked adequate logistics and communication equipment, or a proper understanding of the range of tasks required in order to implement the mission's mandate. Moreover, the Nigerian military observers of UNAMSIL were reluctant to cooperate with the Indian Force Commander Vijay Jetley; this was because, even though Nigeria had sacrificed many lives in peace enforcement tasks in Sierra Leone, the international community did not grant the Nigerian military contingent a leading role in UNAMSIL. As a result, the relationship between the Indian and Nigerian elements of the mission became tense, only to worsen when Jetley accused Nigerian peacekeepers of connivance with the RUF mining activities. Olonisakin sheds positive light on the Nigerian military presence in Sierra Leone, whilst underlining the lack of political skills of the outspoken Jetley. This crisis was eventually resolved with the withdrawal of the Indian contingent, but the mission's internal problems were keenly exploited by the RUF, who took hundreds of peacekeepers as hostages. At this stage, the popularity of UNAMSIL amongst the people of Sierra Leone was at its lowest point, and in the local press acronyms like U-NASTY were common.

Paradoxically, the May 2000 hostage crisis was a turning point which paved the way for a modification of UNAMSIL's mandate, and the implementation of an innovative stick and carrots approach. The appointment of Richard Holbrooke as US Permanent Representative to the United Nations was key to securing the release of US funds for UNAMSIL, and the UK military presence ‘over-the-horizon’ proved to be an effective strategy to deter spoilers of the peace process. At the UN headquarters, a panel chaired by Lakhdar Brahimi on UN peacekeeping reform was instrumental in underlining the need for peace enforcement to deal with spoilers, and UNAMSIL subsequently conducted successfully coordinated peace enforcement operations. Last but not least, the Special Representative of the UN Secretary General and Head of UNAMSIL, Oluyemi Adenigi, pursued a skilful negotiation strategy, the so-called Kambia formula, which led to the successful implementation of the Abuja ceasefire agreements and the phased disarmament of the rebels.

Olonisakin reveals that UNAMSIL's robust peacekeeping approach was not welcomed by other organisations of the UN family in Sierra Leone, because the use of force jeopardised the local populations' perception of the UN's neutral role, particularly in the delivery of humanitarian aid. According to Olonisakin, the appointment of Allan Doss as Humanitarian Coordinator and Resident Coordinator for UNAMSIL as well as UNDP Resident Representative in January 2001 was a key asset to secure closer links between UNAMSIL and the UN Country Team. This book also underlines the population's positive perception of the quick impact of development projects established by UN contingents on the ground. However, since UNAMSIL was withdrawn from Sierra Leone at the end of 2005, the future of peacebuilding was endangered by a tense political climate and the lack of funding, resulting from a decrease of voluntary donations to address the population's needs, including food security, basic health and education. Despite this the United Kingdom signed a memorandum of understanding with the Sierra Leone Government in November 2002, committing the UK to ten years of development aid, and international financial institutions provide low-interest loans and debt relief, but the long-term sustainability of external funding is uncertain. UNAMSIL is a success story, but only the country's political evolution in the coming years will determine whether peace can be consolidated. Notwithstanding several editing mistakes in the central pages, this book is generally well presented, including some valuable illustrations.