The Impartial Soldier - Michael Harbottle

The Impartial Soldier (in retrospect), by Michael Harbottle, Oxford University
Press (Oxford, 1970), 210 pp.
Brigadier Michael Harbottle, author of one of the seminal books on UNFICYP's
involvement in the Cyprus problem in the 1960s, and anecdotal work on peace-
keeping in general, died recently. The book that survives him, although published
in 1970 by Oxford University Press, still has much to teach academics and practi-
tioners and contains insights on UN peacekeeping in general, despite its apparent
focus on the military and peacekeeping aspects of the Cyprus problem. The book
provides an insight into the genesis and development of what is today, a vital part
of our armoury against conflict. When the book was written, peacekeeping was a
relatively new and untested "... method of containing, and settling conflicts
between states in the age of world-wide interdependence."1 Today peacekeeping
is much maligned and misunderstood but no less valuable.
Harbottle was Chief of Staff during the 1960s, at a time when UNFICYP was
attempting to dampen down conflict across the entire island in order to prevent the
conflict in Cyprus from spreading to Greece and Turkey and potentially destabilis-
ing NATO at the height of the Cold War. Harbottle was well aware and highly criti-
cal of the practical involvement of Greece and Turkey on the island although The
Impartial Soldier concentrates on the inter-communal aspects of the Cyprus prob-
lem and communicates the despair that the author felt at neighbour fighting neigh-
bour. Harbottle's involvement in Cyprus during the 1960s led to his subsequent col-
laboration with General lndar Jit Rikhye, then military advisor to U Thant, the UN
Secretary General. This relationship pioneered a significant understanding of the
significance of UN peacekeeping in the context of world peace

Signed by the author to my mother Photini.

Dust cover