Baghdad, August 19, 2003: the headquarters of the United Nations mission in Iraq is blown up by a violent attack. Thirteen years later, Maïa Kanaan-Macaux embarks on a journey in memory of her brother Jean-Sélim, who died under the rubble. An experienced young diplomat and veteran of war zones, Jean-Sélim had written letters from Iraq and a book published a year before his death about his experience at the UN. She takes up his texts, whose clear-sightedness questions the conditions that led to the attack and highlights the opacity of the way the United Nations operates. As we meet the survivors and friends of Jean-Sélim, the attack appears as an emblematic event in the dysfunction of the organization, which affected those who best defended the precious and fragile Humanism enshrined in the UN Charter. The power game exercised by the permanent member states over the organization weakens its credibility and capacity for action, and endangers UN staff. At a time when Western nationalism and Islamist fascism are spreading like wildfire, the UN could well disappear. The United Nations has no choice but to work towards reform to protect its very existence and save the multi-lateralism sought by Churchill and Roosevelt in the aftermath of the Second World War “to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war”.

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