Pale Blue Hope

In 1998 Ron Poulton traveled to Tajikistan as a legal adviser to the UN Mission. It was his job to ensure the men on trial for killing members of a UN observer force—Team Garm—received a fair trial. Poulton vividly captures life in Dushanbe, the Tajik capital, a city full of fear and nightly curfews, where political murders are common and suspicion haunts the streets.

At the same time, Poulton remains haunted by his previous experiences in a Cambodia destroyed by Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge.