Western Sahara (book)
Creators: name: János, Besenyő
Publisher: name: figshare
Year: 2018
Subjects: subject: 160604 Defence Studies
subject: FOS: Political science
subject: FOS: Political science
subject: 210108 Historical Archaeology (incl. Industrial Archaeology)
subject: FOS: History and archaeology
subject: FOS: History and archaeology
subject: 210310 Middle Eastern and African History
subject: Sociology
subject: FOS: Sociology
subject: FOS: Sociology

description: I am fortunate enough to know the author of this book who was on duty in Western Sahara when I was serving as the Chief of Staff of the Hungarian Defence Forces (HDF). Even back then I considered it as a priority not just to send our soldiers to foreign countries but to process and channel their experiences to anyone who might benefit from them.For peacekeeping and the involvement of the HDF in missions outside Hungarian borders are not just military or governmental interests, but important contributions to uphold peace and stability worldwide. We simply cannot forget that the concepts of security and the world itself have changed gravely and rapidly, therefore, we are no longer an independent island with an outside view on the more and more bloody conflicts of other countries and continents. TheRepublic of Hungary—due to its NATO and EU commitments—participates in a growing number of armed and unarmed peacekeeping and peace-managing operations. Therefore, I consider it as of great importance that a vast number of studies deals with such operations in order to help us gain a better knowledge of the outside world and to support us with credible information about the activityof our peacekeeping forces.This volume gives a thorough overview of a still operating UN mission in Western Sahara. Also, this work fills in a niche, since this area—apart from a few minor articles—has not been covered yet. Since the Republic of Hungary hasbeen deploying a small contingent for years—who has been tasked with classic peacekeeping duties—, this fact is rather surprising. Considering that one of the main duties of the Council on Geopolitics is to monitor the different crisis areasof the world, the timeliness of this study is completely verified.The author includes his own experiences to give a thorough overview on the activities of the MINURSO. The book is based on those experiences and on a wide-range analysis of relevant sources. Also, it soon becomes obvious that theauthor was not satisfied to be familiar only with the information deriving from his line of duty, but aimed to understand the roots of the conflict. One of the manybenefits of this case study is that someone unfamiliar with this topic will also be able to understand the aim, essence and hardships of this mission in Western Sahara.As of today, the Hungarian foreign policy does not pay enough attention to the African continent, even though there is a lot to do over there. The world’s poorest continent has to suffer under an increasingly great number of wars andarmed conflicts. The EU’s attention towards the region is already raised and the NATO is being involved in strategic logistics tasks aimed to support the African Union peacekeeping mission in the Sudan. Meanwhile, the experts of security policy can only hope that a time will come when the different international organisations act together to solve the problems of Africa.I do recommend this book of János Besenyő for anyone who is interested in understanding the hardships of Africa in detail.<br>Colonel General Zoltán SzenesFormer Chief of StaffHungarian Defence Forces