FSOs In Their Own Write

A Roundup of Recent Books by Foreign Service Authors

The Foreign Service Journal is pleased to continue what we began last year: an annotated roundup of some of the latest volumes written or edited by Foreign Service personnel, past and present, in 2000 or 2001.

While the traditional Foreign Service genres of diplomatic memoirs and thoughtful analyses of international affairs are well represented, our list of 30 titles also includes several novels, an encyclopedia and an examination of feng shui as a negotiating technique.

Our primary purpose in compiling this list is to celebrate the wealth of literary talent within the Foreign Service community, and to give our readers the opportunity to support your colleagues by sampling their wares. Towards that end, each entry contains full publication data (including contact information for those titles available only by direct order from the publisher) along with a capsule comment.

While many of these books are available from bookstores and other sources, we encourage our readers to use the link to Amazon.com from the AFSA web site to order your selections. [See sidebar.] But enough crass commercialism. On to the books!
-- Leslie Hoffecker, Managing Editor

 

Negotiate with Feng Shui: Enhance Your Skills in Diplomacy, Business and Relationships Jose Armilla, Llewellyn Publications, 2001, $12.95, paperback, 226 pages.
"Feng shui" is the ancient Chinese system of harmonizing a person with his or her surroundings through the manipulation of the "chi," or universal life force. Former FSO Jose Armilla examines the role feng shui has played in negotiations associated with the Korean and Vietnam conflicts and the Cold War, among others. The book has been translated into Russian, Spanish, Romanian and Indian.

Anecdotes of a Vagabond: The Foreign Service, the U.N. and a Volag
Thomas J. Barnes, Xlibris, 2001, $18.69 (paperback)/$28.79 (hardback)/$8 (e-book), 240 pages.
This memoir of 34 years abroad -- 23 of which were with the Foreign Service -- describes Barnes' career not only with the U.S. government but also with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the International Catholic Migration Commission. It also examines major refugee crises, including Indochinese asylum-seekers scattered around the Southeast Asian littoral, Somali fleeing the Ogaden and Afghans crowding into Pakistan and Iran.

Coping with Lust and the Colonel: Wartime Korea from Sokchang-ni
Thomas J. Barnes, Xlibris, 2001, $17.84 (paperback)/$27.89 (hardback)/$8 (e-book), 136 pages.
This novel examines one Army officer's service in Korea, where his encounters lead him from culture shock through ethical dilemmas and sensual ambiguity to religious doubts and clashes with authority. He emerges a changed man.

Tay Son: Rebellion in 18th-Century Vietnam
Thomas J. Barnes, Xlibris, 2001, $18.69 (paperback)/$27.89 (hardback)/$8 (e-book), 216 pages.
This historical novel, based on actual events, is set during the late 1700s in Indochina and tells the story of the Tay Son guerrilla movement, which removed governors known for their decadence and ended up controlling large portions of what is now Vietnam. But 31 years later, the Tay Son movement was itself overthrown by rulers who were able to consolidate power for the next 60 years -- until the arrival of the French.

Stone Gods, Wooden Elephants: Chasing Antique Smugglers in the Jungles and Cities of Southeast Asia
Bob Bergin, Impact Publications, 2001, $14.95, paperback, 332 pages.
Bergin, a Southeast Asia specialist in his days as an FSO, spins an action-packed yarn centering on the murky world of Asian antiquities, in which two American adventurers, lured to a lost Khmer city filled with bronzes and stone carvings, devise a plan to smuggle the cache of ancient cultural treasures into the world art market.

India: Emerging Power
Stephen P. Cohen, Brookings Institution Press, 2001, $28.95, hardback, 377 pages.
A former member of the State Department's Policy Planning staff, Cohen presents the thesis that India has joined China and Japan as one of the most important states in Asia. Going beyond the stereotypes, this book offers an assessment of India's strategic and political power following its nuclear testing in 1998 and war with Pakistan in 1999. Cohen also examines India's relationships with its neighbors, particularly Pakistan and China -- a particularly relevant topic today -- and urges the United States to develop a warmer relationship with the world's most populous democracy.

Turbulent Peace: The Challenges of Managing International Conflict
Edited by Chester A. Crocker, Fen Osler Hampson and Pamela Aall; U.S. Institute of Peace, 2001, $35, paperback, 936 pages.
Crocker, a former assistant secretary of state for African affairs, joins two distinguished academics for their third book on global crisis management. They have collected essays from 50 leading international affairs analysts who offer a variety of perspectives on managing, preventing or resolving conflicts around the world. Together, the writings underline the volatility and vulnerability of states and peoples in a world that is both increasingly interconnected and ever more differentiated and decentralized in its political and social structures.

Pierre Mends France: Un tmoignage (A testimony) (in French)
Francis de Tarr, Mille Sources (Bo”te Postale 102, 10093 Tulle, France), 2001, 50 French francs or 7.62 euros (approx. U.S. $7), paperback, 64 pages.
A lawyer and economist, Mends France became France's premier in 1954, after the French defeat at Dienbienphu, and arranged the armistice that halted the fighting in Indochina. He also helped to form the Western European Union and proposed extensive economic reform, but his liberal policy toward North Africa caused the collapse of his Radical Socialist government -- only seven months and 17 days after it began. De Tarr, a former FSO who now lives in France, knew Mends France well from 1955 until his death in 1982.

Digital Diplomacy: U.S. Foreign Policy in the Information Age
Wilson Dizard Jr., Praeger/CSIS, 2001, $69.95 (hardback)/$24.95 (paperback), 232 pages.
Now a senior associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, former FSO Wilson Dizard specializes in media and communications topics. In this timely book, he provides an overview of U.S. information policy, from the Morse code to the Internet, rejecting the idea of computer-based "telediplomacy" and arguing instead that new technologies should be used to strengthen the capabilities of U.S. diplomats in dealing with current issues.

The Phantom Defense: America's Pursuit of the Star Wars Illusion
Craig Eisendrath, Melvin Goodman and Gerald Marsh; Praeger, 2001, $24.95, hardback, 216 pages.
The title says it all. Former FSO Craig Eisendrath, now at the Center for International Policy, and colleagues from the National War College and Argonne National Laboratory, respectively, critique the Bush administration's plans to implement a national missile defense system on a number of grounds. In particular, they presciently argue (in light of the World Trade Center attacks) that those wishing to harm the United States are far more likely to use technology that is relatively cruder than the ballistic missiles NMD is designed to shoot down.

A Strategy for Stable Peace: Toward a Euroatlantic Security Community
James Goodby, Petrus Buwalda and Dmitri Trenin; U.S. Institute of Peace, 2001, $17.50, paperback, 192 pages.
This collaboration between Goodby, a former ambassador and arms negotiator, and two prominent scholars from the Netherlands and Russia proposes a security community stretching from Vancouver to Vladivostok, arguing that close and enduring cooperation can eventually be built on the basis of shared values and common interests. The authors examine the current social, political and economic climates within the United States, the European Union and Russia and present various models of cooperation before making their own recommendations.

State of Decay: An Oubangui Chronicle
Robert Gribben, Infinity Publishing, 2001, $13.95, paperback, 156 pages.
Gribben, who describes himself as a "semi-retired FSO," has penned a novel set in contemporary Africa. Filled with intrigue, political violence, blood diamonds, witchcraft and poaching, this tale of one man's quest to sweep a tyrant from power reflects the mysteries of Africa and the passions of its people.

Captive in the Congo: A Consul's Return to the Heart of Darkness
Michael P.E. Hoyt, Naval Institute Press, $29.95, hardback, 312 pages.
A winner of the Secretary's Award in 1964 for his courage when taken hostage by rebels at the U.S. consulate in Stanleyville, the Congo, Hoyt tells, for the first time, the inside story of the seizure of the consulate staff and their subsequent 111 days of captivity. The incident presents valuable lessons both for the future conduct of hostages and the policies that deal with this type of terrorism.

Pax Democratica: A Strategy for the 21st Century
James Robert Huntley, Palgrave Publishers Ltd., 2001, $21.95, paperback, 272 pages.
Huntley proposes what he calls "an Intercontinental Community of Democracies" led by Britain, France, Germany, Japan, Canada and the United States. He argues that the world's leading democracies share critical common interests and must find a way to advance those interests together. First published in 1998, this book has been reissued -- with a new foreword by former Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger -- by a British publisher. (See the November FSJ for a review.)

Ch Guevara,
A Biography
Daniel James; introduction by Henry Butterfield Ryan, Cooper Square Press, $17.95, 2001, paperback, 394 pages.
This is a reprint of one of the first English-language books (published in 1969) to examine the life of Fidel Castro's right-hand man, who aided in the overthrow of the Batista government and then left Cuba to foment revolution elsewhere (he was killed in Bolivia in 1967). Retired FSO Henry Butterfield Ryan, an associate at the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy at Georgetown University, has prepared a new introduction for this edition, placing James' writings in historical context. The book, he writes, "gives readers not only a glimpse of a political attitude from the 1960s that is often overlooked, but also a view of Guevara that they will not get elsewhere."

Why Peacekeeping Fails
Dennis C. Jett, Palgrave, $18.95 (paperback), 236 pages.
Jett, a former ambassador to Mozambique and Peru, compares the unsuccessful peacekeeping operation in Angola with a very successful one in Mozambique, along with examinations of other peacekeeping operations. He argues that such missions are often doomed to failure because of two critical factors: the way they are initiated and the organization of the United Nations.

Both Hunter and Hunted: A Cold War Adventure
Vincent Joyce, Writers Club Press, 2001, $16.95, paperback, 320 pages.
This fast-paced novel of suspense, set where East meets West, tells the story of an FSO who doubled as a CIA agent in Turkey. A quarter-century after he wrote it, an espionage novel he penned at the height of the Cold War comes back to haunt him.

The Great Phelsuma Caper (A Diplomatic Memoir)
Robert V. Keeley, Five and Ten Press, 2000, $10, paperback, 148 pages.
Keeley, a former ambassador to Zimbabwe, Greece and Mauritius (home of the phelsuma, a type of gecko), manages to combine elements as disparate as Idi Amin, Texaco, Henry Kissinger, the San Antonio Zoo and Queen Elizabeth II into what he calls "a mostly true story embellished by passing it through the memory function of the human mind."

Transforming Foreign Aid: United States Assistance in the 21st Century
Carol Lancaster, Institute for International Economics, 2000, $15.95, paperback, 114 pages.
Lancaster, currently an assistant professor at the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service, has been deputy administrator at USAID and a deputy assistant secretary of State for African Affairs. In this, her latest book, she argues that for U.S. foreign aid to be effective in this new century, it needs new objectives. These should include supporting peacemaking, addressing transnational issues, providing for humane concerns and responding to humanitarian emergencies.

I Did It This Way: From Texas and Oil to Oxford, Diplomacy and Corporate Boards
George C. McGhee, Rutledge Books, 2001, $25.95, hardback, 320 pages.
A Rhodes Scholar who served 22 years in the State Department, McGhee recalls the highlights of his various careers as a student, an oil company executive and a FSO, offering insights into ways that diplomacy can affect world events and examining the process of creating policy and undertaking sensitive negotiations.

The Great North Korean Famine: Famine, Politics and Foreign Policy
Andrew S. Natsios, U.S. Institute of Peace, 2001, $19.95, paperback, 252 pages.
Beginning in 1994, a terrible famine struck North Korea; over the next five years, more than three million people starved to death as the regime tried to hide what was happening -- and the international community tried not to look too hard. Natsios, currently the head of the U.S. Agency for International Development, worked for an NGO effort to aid the famine victims. He draws on interviews with refugees, thousands of e-mails and his own encounters with government officials from all sides to present a picture of a disaster of biblical proportions, a paranoid regime blinded by ideological rigidity and Western governments torn between humanitarian ideals and political realities.

Prelude to Tragedy: Vietnam 1960-1965
Edited by Harvey Neese and John O'Donnell, Naval Institute Press, 2001, $41.95, hardback, 336 pages.
O'Donnell, a former USAID official in Southeast Asia and elsewhere, and Neese, an international agricultural consultant, have compiled a collection of essays, by both U.S. and Vietnamese authors, arguing that U.S. failure in Vietnam was not inevitable. They suggest, rather, that the Vietnam conflict might have ended far differently if U.S. policy-makers had listened to experts in Asian culture and had pursued a coherent counterinsurgency strategy, rather than "Americanizing" the conflict.

Death In Malaga: An American Eyewitness Account of the Spanish Civil War
Edward Norton, StarcomWorldwide.com, $29.95, paperback, 292 pages.
Edward Norton was an FSO from 1907 to 1927, when he resigned to accept a position as president of Bevan, S.A., in Malaga, Spain, then the world's largest exporter of almonds and raisins. In 1931, Spanish tranquility disappeared in Malaga as the events leading up to the Spanish Civil War began to unfold. This book, published by and available from Norton's great nephew, William Harmon, gives a day-by-day account of the fighting by opposing forces in and around the southern Spanish seaport.

America Recommitted: A Superpower Assesses Its Role in a Turbulent World (Second Edition)
Donald E. Nuechterlein, University Press of Kentucky, 2000, $19, paperback, 326 pages.
Should the United States use its power to protect human rights in foreign countries, or should action be taken only when the U.S. national interest is at stake? Nuechterlein updates his 1991 book of the same title with an expanded assessment of America as an international hegemon and examines the future of U.S. foreign policy as a new century begins.

The French Overseas Empire
Frederick Quinn, Praeger, 2000, $65, hardback, 336 pages.
Quinn, a former FSO, has written about France's overseas presence for more than three decades. Here he examines the five centuries that France has been both a European and a global power, including Cartier's exploration of Canada, the French presence in Louisiana, the vast -- but short-lived -- French empire in India, and its misadventures in North Africa and Indochina.

United States Export Controls, Fourth Edition
William A. Root and John R. Liebman, Aspen Law & Business, 2000 (with 2001 supplement), $175, looseleaf binder.
If you're involved in exports, this book provides useful assistance in understanding the exceedingly complex and convoluted export regulations. It points out inconsistencies within and among the regulations issued by the Commerce, State and Treasury Departments, enabling exporters to avoid violations that could result in a large fine or the unnecessary loss of an export sale, and covers the most recent developments in export controls. Root specialized in economic issues (including export controls) in his days as an FSO.

From Ancient Afryqah to Modern Africa: History Revealing Clues to Current Issues
Pierre L. Sales, 1999, CD-ROM (Acrobat Reader 4.0 format included on CD), available via Afryqah.com, $49, equivalent of 2,400 hard-copy pages.
Pierre Sales' interest in Africa and its peoples goes back nearly half a century and includes over 15 years spent working for USAID and its predecessor agencies throughout the continent. Reviewing this encyclopedia in the November FSJ, editor Steven Alan Honley praised its inclusion of thematic and country-specific essays and historical maps (many in color) and cited it as a reference work that will surely be valuable for years to come.

The South African Truth Commission: The Politics of Reconciliation
Dorothy Shea, U.S. Institute of Peace, 2000, $9.95, paperback, 128 pages.
In this study of South Africa's historic Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Shea investigates the origins of the commission in the country's transition from apartheid to democracy, examines the extent to which it learned from the experiences of earlier Latin American commissions, and focuses on how the politics of the commission were played out in issues such as amnesty, reparations, and prosecutions. Her report offers a generally positive assessment and explains not only how South Africa measured up, but also why.

Exiting Indochina:
U.S. Leadership of the Cambodia Settlement and Normalization with Vietnam
Richard H. Solomon, U.S. Institute of Peace, 2000, $12.95, paperback, 136 pages.
For most Americans, the U.S. exit from Indochina occurred in 1973, with the withdrawal of the U.S. military from South Vietnam. In fact, as Richard Solomon, a former assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, points out, it did not occur until two years later, after the collapse of the Republic of Vietnam in 1975. Then came the Cambodian revolution and a decade of Vietnamese occupation of Cambodia. Solomon recounts the diplomacy that brought an end to great power involvement in Indochina, including the negotiations for a United Nations peace process in Cambodia and construction of a "road map" for normalizing U.S.-Vietnam relations.

In Search of the Elusive Peace Corps Moment / Destination: Estonia
Douglas Wells, Xlibris, 2001, $21.99, paperback, 264 pages.
Nearly all Peace Corps volunteers have returned from their stint abroad with a collection of stories that they begin spinning at every dinner party they attend. Wells, currently an FSO, has gone one step further, gathering his tales into a book described on Amazon.com as "the book every returned Peace Corps volunteer wants to write." And his story is indeed unique; he was in the first group of Peace Corps volunteers that went to the former Soviet Union -- Estonia, to be precise -- where he found "love, adventure and a renewed sense of purpose."