Blue Helmets and Black Markets

Blue Helmets and Black Markets provides a template for analyzing international interventions, suggesting that looking beyond the standard actors and actions yields some significant insights. * International Studies Review * Andreas does not deny the suffering or the heroism of those caught in the siege of Sarajevo or the deadly earnestness of those who maintained it. But he wants to make this savage tale whole by exposing corruption's part in exploiting and sustaining the violence. Andreas, with prose as lean as his analysis is rich, avoids moral judgments and focuses instead on the two-sided aspects of this sort of war: the illicit commerce between the warring parties, the profiteering by politicians struggling to save a community, the indulgences of outside agencies sent to help the victims. * Foreign Affairs * In this provocative study, Andreas examines the unexpected consequences of humanitarian intervention.... Drawing on extensive interviews, diaries, and memoirs of participants, and newspaper accounts, among other sources, Andreas argues that the internationalization of the siege paradoxically prolonged the conflict. Humanitarian assistance the international community provided to the people of Sarajevo became incorporated into the criminalized war economy that flourished in the besieged city.... The study also reveals the much more complex social dynamics that emerged and flourished during the conflict. In particular, far from severing ties between ethnic groups, the war economy sustained informal contacts and cross-ethnic collaboration in the midst of conflict. Andreas argues that the example of Sarajevo strongly suggests that uncovering the hidden dynamics of war economies is important because their legacies outlast a conflict's end and continue to shape postconflict reconstruction. Highly recommended. * Choice *

Peter Andreas is John Hay Professor of International Studies at Brown University. He is the author of Border Games and coeditor of Sex, Drugs, and Body Counts, both from Cornell. He is also the author of Smuggler Nation and coauthor of Policing the Globe and Drug War Politics.

Preface1. The Longest Siege Sarajevo on Center Stage The Cast of Characters Front Stage and Backstage: Formal and Informal Roles Conflict Narratives Criminalized Conflict Narratives Preview2. Imposing the Siege The Road to Siege Warfare The Start of the Siege and the Criminally Aided Defense The International Response3. Sustaining the Siege Diverting and Manipulating Humanitarian Aid Exploiting the Privileges of Mobility and Access The UN-Controlled Airport as Smuggling Hub Tunneling under the Siege: Lifeline and Profit Center Trading with the Enemy The Media and Its Dependence on the Black Market The Money Letter Smuggling System The Smugglers' Markets and Cigarettes as Currency4. The Siege Within Criminal Defenders as Predators Political Corruption, Abuse, and Opportunism Obstructing Access to Water5. Lifting the Siege Front Stage:Triggering NATO Air Strikes Backstage: Shifting the Military Balance by Evading the UN Arms Embargo6. Aftermath The Criminalized Aftermath of War The Criminalized New Elite Sarajevo as Transit Point for Migrant Smuggling Sex Trafficking and Peacekeeping The Arizona Market: Peace through Illicit Trade?7. Extensions Srebrenica Leningrad Grozny FallujaConclusions Revisiting Sarajevo Lessons from SarajevoNotes Index