Blue Helmet

My Year as a UN Peacekeeper in South Sudan

By Edward H. Carpenter, and Reviewed by Paul E. Rasmussen

Article published on: January 1, 2026 in the Winter 2026 Edition of Army History

Read Time: < 7 mins

Blue Helmet: My Year as a UN Peacekeeper in South Sudan offers a compelling firsthand account of the United Nations (UN) peacekeeping mission in South Sudan. It is an essential read for current and future policymakers as well as practitioners in the field of international peacekeeping. South Sudan, the world’s youngest nation, gained independence from Sudan on 9 July 2011, following decades of civil war and conflict. Its brief history reflects the legacies of colonial rule, internal divisions, and two major civil wars that left deep scars on its society. Despite its rich oil reserves, South Sudan grapples with ethnic violence, political instability, and arms trafficking, and it is at the bottom of the Human Development Index. Geopolitically, South Sudan remains fragile. Its transitional government is riddled with tension, and conflicts spill over its borders from unstable African neighbors.

Supporting South Sudan’s independence from Sudan, the UN established the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) on 8 July 2011, with a mandate to consolidate peace and security, support the transitional government in conflict prevention and economic development, and protect civilians. Despite UN peacekeeping efforts and billions of dollars of international aide, South Sudan faced a dire humanitarian crisis in 2018. Approximately 4.4 million people were displaced forcibly, around 19,000 children were recruited as soldiers unlawfully, and human rights violations—including extrajudicial killings, torture, and sexual violence—were widespread. It was into this sad and volatile environment that Lt. Col. Edward H. Carpenter entered after joining UNMISS in April 2019.

Carpenter is a retired U.S. Marine Corps officer who served with distinction for nearly thirty years. Initially a logistics officer and later a foreign area officer, he took on the unfamiliar role of UN peacekeeper near the end of his career. Carpenter had no peacekeeping experience, but his deployments to Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Japan, and Indonesia, along with advanced degrees from the Naval Postgraduate School and the U.S. Air War College, prepared him well for the mission. These experiences enabled him to grasp complex realities and navigate the intricate bureaucracy of the UN quickly and effectively while serving as the chief of the Policy and Plans Branch for the UNMISS force. Through dozens of vivid anecdotes recounting Carpenter’s experiences, frustrations, and challenges during his year in country, Blue Helmet offers a realistic portrait of life as a UN peacekeeper. Daily activities included planning with international partners, patrolling both urban and rural environments, and building relationships with the local population. Carpenter was happy to be in South Sudan and ready to make a difference in the lives of the impoverished population. Unfortunately, the dual challenges of South Sudanese domestic politics and UN bureaucratic inertia often undermined Carpenter’s operational insight and strategic acumen.

Despite his extensive experience and education, the author faced numerous systemic obstacles. These included the host government limiting the mission’s freedom of movement, conflicting national caveats among troop-contributing countries, overly cautious force protection protocols, limited logistical and intelligence resources, and high personnel turnover. These challenges were compounded by a lack of political will to enforce the mission’s mandate and persistent disconnects between UN field leadership and headquarters personnel in the capital of Juba. Tragically, during this year in South Sudan, the people continued to suffer. Civilian deaths in 2019 surpassed those of the previous year. Confronted with death, violence, and humanitarian catastrophe, and often powerless to intervene, Carpenter vividly illustrates the ethical dilemmas that peacekeepers face daily. Some of the book’s most compelling moments are when Carpenter confronts UN leadership directly, speaking truth to power and challenging interpretations of the mandate in relation to intercommunal violence.

Throughout the book, Carpenter channels his frustrations by using what he considers his most powerful tool—the pen. He offers candid reflections on personal challenges, confrontations with leadership, and proposals seeking to improve outcomes. Many insights stem from journal entries, such as when he writes solemnly, “I’ve seen firsthand how bad it is and that we do nothing” (196). In other parts of the book, he shares his personal emails containing appeals to inactive colleagues, asserting, “Maybe just once in my year here, we showed up BEFORE the killing started” (203). The author’s chapter-opening excerpts are particularly provocative and include comments from U.S. officials, nongovernmental experts, and UN bureaucrats, which collectively reveal a troubling pattern of awareness without action.

The culminating story in his memoir details his communications before and after an event in the town of Pibor that he labeled a “crime against humanity” (267). After returning from a patrol and receiving evidence that communal violence was imminent, Carpenter detailed the situation to several UNMISS senior representatives, and, thinking like a Marine logistical officer, he included recommendations on how the mission could mitigate the threat. Rather than adopting Carpenter’s informed recommendations, many of his colleagues and leaders responded with explanations of political constraints and institutional limitations, saying that “they would have to be allowed to battle” (255). Disillusioned by the lack of accountability, Carpenter concludes the book under the shadow of the COVID–19 pandemic, expressing deep disenchantment with the UN mission.

Carpenter’s return home coincided with his military retirement, giving him the opportunity to advocate for South Sudan and UN peacekeeping through his writing. This transition led to Blue Helmet. His book is indeed a thought-provoking memoir that blends personal narrative with institutional critique, along with recommendations for improved implementation of policy. Drawing from his experience in South Sudan under a flawed UN mandate, Carpenter illustrates how, rather than protecting civilians and easing humanitarian suffering, leadership within the UN’s multinational bureaucracy often prioritized a narrative of success through questionable data while tolerating alarming levels of violence, including rape, kidnapping, and ethnic killings. The book offers a gripping account of a peacekeeper’s experience, but its greatest value lies in Carpenter’s examination of the UN’s structural shortcomings. As the global order shifts toward multipolarity, strategic competition, and renewed spheres of inf luence, he challenges readers to reconsider the effectiveness of foundational international institutions. His reflections are particularly relevant amid the UN’s incapacity concerning the ongoing crises in Ukraine and the Gaza Strip and other transnational challenges.

Although the story is captivating, the cause is worthwhile, and the reader gains a deeper understanding of South Sudan and UN peacekeeping, the book is not without flaws. The author acknowledges the complexities of South Sudanese politics and the risk-averse nature of UN leadership, but he misses several opportunities to explore these issues more thoroughly. At times, Carpenter suggests that peace could be achieved through relatively simple actions, overlooking the complex realities of international relations and the entrenched challenges of nation building. Omitted from his analysis is the incorporation of counterarguments, which, if grounded in foundational international relations theories like Kenneth Waltz’s levels of analysis or Graham Allison’s decision-making models, could have added valuable analytical depth. Brief references to Iraq, Afghanistan, and other African contexts hint at these difficulties but remain underdeveloped. Moreover, unlike the nineteenth-century U.S. experience, in which nation building occurred with little oversight, South Sudan faces intense global scrutiny, with its governance often labeled inhumane. In this context, one should question whether institutions like the UN are equipped to help, or if they sometimes worsen the problems they aim to solve.

I strongly recommend Blue Helmet, particularly for military practitioners, the humanitarian community, and leaders within international organizations. Though some of the author’s insights and conclusions may come across as naive, especially in today’s era of heightened geopolitical competition, they are nonetheless thoughtful, well informed, and accurate. Ultimately, the issues raised in Blue Helmet deserve serious ref lection as atrocities continue to exist in places like South Sudan. Carpenter continues his advocacy through his foundation, World Without War, which receives all proceeds from the book.