Richard Holbrooke commends Masses in Flight in an address at Cardozo Law School (3/28/00):
 

"For those in the academic community, here at Cardozo and elsewhere, who beneift from being outside the turf wars that characterize UN agencies—focus your energy on finding a solution [to humanitarian crises]. Thus far, the work of academics and advocates like Francis Deng and Roberta Cohen of the Brookings Institution have been absolutely indispensible in drawing attention to this crisis and possible solutions. Their book, Masses in Flight, published by Brookings, is a landmark study and an excellent place to start."

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Richard C. Holbrooke made the following comments while addressing the UN Security Council about humanitarian assistance to refugees in Africa.

"I failed to acknowledge at the outset that we are also joined today by Francis Deng, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on internally displaced persons. He and Roberta Cohen [co-directors of the Project on Internal Displacement at the Brookings Institution] have written a very important book on the subject, and I would commend it to all members. . . .

What is an internally displaced person? What is a refugee? They do not care; they are all homeless. We must address this problem. We need to acknowledge frankly that there is no real difference to the victims involved. Then we need to call upon the world body and all its specialized agencies, and through its Member States, to figure out what to do with the problem that was not fully foreseen when the United Nations Charter was shaped and when the UNHCR drew its mandate. For example, Francis Deng is responsible to the Commission on Human Rights in Geneva. That is fine; I applaud the Commission on Human Rights. But in my view, he should be working directly with and for the UNHCR, with the Security Council and with the Economic and Social Council across the board, in order to stimulate all of us to deal with this problem. His book—Roberta Cohen's book—contains many practical suggestions and a lot of analysis."

—Ambassador Richard C. Holbrooke, UN Security Council meeting (1/13/00)