“In Perilous Interventions, Hardeep Singh Puri takes a forensic swipe at the United Nations Security Council, forcefully arguing that if it continues to function as it presently does it will further discredit the cause of peace and security. Since his posting as a young diplomat in the Sri Lankan Tamil War, Puri had a ring-side seat on numerous faulty interventions and knows why they went wrong. He ended up at the heart of the Security Council and its ill-fated decisions on Libya and Syria where it was “clear as daylight” that arming rebels would create unprecedented chaos. He describes whimsical decision making without through consequences and asks poignantly why governments pursue policies which are against their own interests. Puri’s is a robust, refreshing and experienced voice explaining what many of us are wondering everyday: how it was ever possible that terror could have such a grip on global politics. The insight is chilling and brilliant. His view is all the more important because it doesn’t come from the safe talking shops of the Washington Beltway, London’s Whitehall or a European Union committee. This is the eye of how and why things fall apart when run by an old guard global system that has not been reformed for more than seventy years.”