Blue Helmets

Author's Note

Firstly I'd like to thank everyone who's reading this, my first work here, and what I hope will evolve into my first published novel. This is an ongoing effort of mine and I welcome all feedback and constructive criticism.

Secondly is terminology, a great many of this work's characters are military service members, and military action is obviously significant to the plot action. It follows that military terminology will feature prominently, a few things to take note of:

One of these is rank. I refer to all characters using military ranks that would be familiar to a Western reader, i.e. I refer to Sergeant Mahajan of the Indian Army as a Sergeant rather than a Havildar, the equivalent Indo-Pakistani rank. I will generally follow this practice so long as an equivalent rank exists.

Another is abbreviations. All global militaries are rife with acronyms and abbreviations. I do my best to explain them before they're used, but if I neglect to do so a simple web search should be sufficient.

Other things the reader may make note of are largely political: in short, I am not attempting to marginalize or insult any country or it's citizens by using those nations as settings, mentioning action by the governments of those nations, or by casting citizens of those countries as characters. Readers may note that a disproportionate number of UN Peacekeepers hail from developing nations; Africa, South Asia, etc. This is not me taking a jab at the West, rather, it reflects the state of UN Peacekeeping forces, where only 7% of all peacekeepers are volunteered by Europe and Canada, and Bangladesh is the largest contributor. The United States of America contributes only 36 Peacekeepers at the time of writing, which should explain the relative lack of American characters.

Finally, I'd ask readers to understand and be aware of my political position, as it certainly applies to this work. As a World Federalist I support expanded UN authority, UN reform to weaken the grip of the P5 Nations (US, UK, France, Russia and China), the abolition of war, dissolution of national armies, and the eventual end of nations and establishment of a uni-global state. These are, one might note, rather lofty and not entirely realistic goals. While I am idealistic, I am also a realist; I do not expect to see all of these achieved in my lifetime.

I will do my best to remain neutral and realistic in my storytelling, but the reader should be aware of my philosophy and understand how it may impact my perception of characters and events.

Thank you.