A seat on the UN Security Council is a coveted post. With five permanent and ten elected members, the Security Council is responsible for international peace and security, mediating in conflicts, sending out blue helmets and imposing sanctions. Ambassador Karel J.G. van Oosterom, Permanent Representative of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to the United Nations, therefore conducted intensive lobbying for a seat on the Security Council. When the time finally came in 2018, it was the beginning of an intense year.
In "With an Orange Tie" Van Oosterom gives the reader intimate insights into the Security Council. He shows the manner in which diplomats discussed international conflicts and how the Council helped to prevent Ebola from becoming a global pandemic; it was a year fraught with tension in places like Syria, Yemen, Iran and North Korea, and with issues such as MH17 and the spy affair in Salisbury. He also discusses the importance of the UN and what it meant to the Netherlands to be a member of the Security Council for a year.