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Retired U.S. Marine Corps Lt. Col. Edward H. Carpenter, former chief of policy and planning for the United Nations Mission in South Sudan, will share insights from his new book, “Blue Helmet: My Year as a Peacekeeper” (Potomac Books, March 2025), in the Commonwealth Honors College Events Hall on Friday, April 4 at 3 p.m.

Carpenter served in the Marines for 20 years with deployments to Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Japan and Indonesia. He is a graduate of the U.S. Air War College and the Indonesian Naval Command and Staff College, and has completed graduate degrees from Harvard University, the University of Melbourne and the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School. 

“Blue Helmet” tells the story of a country, a conflict and the institution of peacekeeping through the eyes of a senior American military officer working on the ground in one of the most dangerous countries on the planet. 

The book reveals how the U.N. really conducts its missions: what it tolerates and how it often falls short of achieving the aims of its charter — equal rights, justice and economic advancement for all people — with the use of armed forces limited to serving those common interests by keeping the peace and preventing the scourge of war.

The talk is hosted by the Human Security Lab at UMass Amherst and co-sponsored by Security in Context, the Center for Law, Justice and Societies, the Department of Political Science and the Five College Consortium International Relations Program.