Ambassador Cameron Hume's Mission to Algiers relates the dramatic account of the U.S. Algerian embassy's promotion of democracy, rule of law, and market economy in a region experiencing great change. Hume's first-hand account chronicles the Algerian government's near bankruptcy in the 1990s, the Islamist insurgency that killed 100,000 people and threatened the country's stability, and the slow push toward democracy in the face of one-party rule. Hume's account shows the strengths and weaknesses of American foreign engagement, and most importantly the theory and method behind using expanding bilateral relations to enable a massive reduction in terrorist violence, and bolstering positive economic and political change.

Ambassador Cameron Hume's Mission to Algiers relates the dramatic account of the U.S. Algerian embassy's promotion of democracy, rule of law, and market economy in a region experiencing great change. Hume's first-hand account chronicles the Algerian government's near bankruptcy in the 1990s, the Islamist insurgency that killed 100,000 people and threatened the country's stability, and the slow push toward democracy in the face of one-party rule. Hume's account shows the strengths and weaknesses of American foreign engagement, and most importantly the theory and method behind using expanding bilateral relations to enable a massive reduction in terrorist violence, and bolstering positive economic and political change.

"Hume has written a ground-breaking study... his analysis is thoughtful and objective in the best tradiiton of the practitioner scholar." Choice

..". a ground-breaking book written by a rising star of the American diplomatic service who was himself intimately involved in the Beekman Place negotiations... Mr. Hume... guides the reader through the complex diplomacy that surrounded the Iraq-Iran war, showing how the great powers came to recognize that ending the conflict was in their interests." Paul Lewis, New York Times Book Review

"Cameron Hume shows how the problems and perils arising from the war served as timely grist to the mills of the Security Council at the UN... This is something that well deserves to be saved from oblivion." The Economist

..". well-informed... an ably written diplomatic history that will be referred to for years to come by those who want to understand how the United Nations is meant to operate." Foreign Affairs

"This book describes how the member states operate, in good times and bad. And it does so with grace and insight." Gary Sick, Middle East Journal

..". a serious and insightful account of the changing role of the UN in the Iran-Iraq conflict... by an able diplomat who was directly involved." Shibley Telhami

"This insider s account of the revolutionary changes in the U.N. Security Council... is a major contribution to understanding why the U.N. and the Council are now more effective and more used.... a well-written, important book." U.S. Ambassador Thomas R. Pickering

Hume s authoritative account follows the transformation of the Security Council, since 1985, from a stage for acrimonious public diplomacy into a forum where governments collaborate to settle regional disputes."