When millions around the world marched to protest the Iraq war and the US drive towards empire, the “New York Times” dubbed global public opinion ‘the second super-power.’ What empowered those protests was their alliance – if only for a brief moment – with governments unexpectedly willing to stand up to US pressure, and with the United Nations itself, when it followed its Charter’s command to stop ‘the scourge of war.’ Bennis tracks the rise of US unilateralism and the doctrine of preemptive war, looking particularly at Iraq and Israel/Palestine, and examines both the potential and the challenges ahead in reclaiming the UN as part of the global peace movement.