Download Backstabbing for Beginners: My Crash Course in International Diplomacy AudioBook Free
The year is 1997. Michael Soussan, a fresh-faced young graduate, occupies a fresh job at the UN's Oil-for-Food program, the major humanitarian operation in the organization's background. His mission is to help Iraqi civilians survive the devastating impact of monetary sanctions which were imposed following the 1990 invasion of Kuwait. As a gaffe-prone amateur in a world of delicate taboos, Soussan battles to work out the increasing paranoia of his incomprehensible employer and the interior workings of one of the world's notoriously intricate bureaucracies. But as he learns more about the great amounts of money flowing through the program, it becomes clear that is not what it seems. Soussan becomes aware that Saddam Hussein is extracting illegal kickbacks, a finding that models him on a collision course with the organization's command. On March 8, 2004, in a Wall structure Streets Journal op-ed, Soussan becomes the first insider to call for "an unbiased research" of the UN's dealings with Saddam Hussein. Seven days later a humiliated Kofi Annan appointed Paul Volcker to lead a team of international investigators, whose findings resulted in a huge selection of prosecutions in multiple countries, many of which remain ongoing. Backstabbing for Rookies is at once a witty tale of one man's political approaching of age and a stinging indictment of the hypocrisy that prevailed at the heart of one of the world's most idealistic establishments.
