Book Reviews 139 

Calling the Shots: How Washington 

Dominates Today's UN 

Phyllis Bennis 

Northampton, MA: Olive Branch Press, 2000. 341 pages. 

While many Americans are just becoming aware of the United States' 
extraordinary dominance over the UN, Phyllis Bennis has long been a 

"prophet," warning of the catastrophic consequences of its disproportion­
ate influence over this international body. A prolific writer, whose pub­
lished works include Beyond the Storm: A Gulf Crisis Reader and Altered 
States: A Reader in the New World Order (Interlink: 1999. Edited with 

Michael Moushabeck), Bennis' signature work, Calling the Shots 
(Interlink: 1998. Edited with Michael Moushabeck), was initially pub-







142 The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences 20:2 

Bennis' fmal chapter, "The Laws of Empire," presages the current UN 
crisis and conflicts between contending European powers. Her final caution 

to the U.S. is: "Being the richest and most powerful nation in the world does 
not give the U.S. the right to trample international law, to run endgames 
around the UN, to use or discard the global organization at the whim of super­
power arrogance or caprice of domestic politics. At the turn of the twenty-first 

century, the world has had enough of empires writing their own rules." 

Imam Ghayth Nur Kashif 

Masjidush Shura 

Washington, DC