The oxford handbook on the United Nations

Handbook is something of a misnomer for a work of this genre. The Oxford Handbook on the United Nations’ contents and informed analysis are on a scale that makes it invaluable to hand for learned reference. But a handbook, as such, it is not. Rather it contains essays, drawing on the writing skills and participatory experience of 47 well-established practitioners, academics, analysts and writers. Their seams of varied and above all readable knowledge might have filled several volumes. It is, as the editors point out in their introduction, above all a handbook on, not of, the United Nations. It is a tribute to the variety and substance of its content, which makes it hard to read for review. To ease this task, this reviewer has been influenced by a fine idea to help reach conclusions through an informal critical conversation with the well-informed.