International Intervention in the Greek Civil War: The United Nations Special Committee on the Balkans, 1947-1952

This book details the events leading to the outbreak of the Greek Civil War and examines the unique means by which the United Nations' intervention was able to restrain a conflict that threatened to engulf the Balkans and southeastern Europe. The author demonstrates how the United Nations Special Committee on the Balkans (UNSCOB)--the first U.N. observation mission--stood out as a success story among the observation and peacekeeping missions of the post-World War II era. Using sources from the United Nations, England, the United States, Holland, and Greece, the author offers a comprehensive re-creation of the uniquely successful role played by the U.N. in the Greek Civil War. The author contends that U.N. intervention in the civil war, conducted in the Balkans during the late 1940s by a few hundred observers, was a successful peacekeeping operation. This conclusion challenges the generally accepted view of the U.N. as a useless performer in post-World War II civil wars.