‘Hardeep Singh Puri’s Perilous Interventions opens a welcome window into the closed-off inner sanctum of multilateral diplomacy, the United Nations Security Council. The look is a privileged one – both because Puri, a former Indian ambassador, was a member of the Council himself at a critical intervention-minded moment and because he wields a pen that cuts through institutional self-regard and obfuscating UN speak to reveal how the panel can end up undermining the very thing it is charged with ensuring: international peace and security.’