The Foreign Service Journal - November 2017

The Language of Economics: Socially Constructed Vocabularies and Assumptions Robert E. Mitchell, Palgrave Macmillan, 2016, $54.99/hardcover, $54.99/Kindle, 131 pages. Rather than a traditional book on econom- ics and markets, this work is about the moral basis of economic thinking. As in other professions, the field of economics has its own vocabulary by which the elements of economic processes are described and evaluated. Robert Mitchell introduces a few vocabulary terms and associ- ated assumptions found in the historical writings of economists and raises questions about them. “Wealth,” “gross domestic product,” “hierarchies” and “inequality,” for example, are all terms infused with moral over- tones that academic philosophers and policy analysts have used to raise questions about fairness and justice. In eight thoughtful chapters, Robert Mitchell challenges readers to question the implicit assumptions underlying such concepts, which only appear to be neutral, and to reconsider the policy goals the United States and other nations can, and should, be pursuing. Robert E. Mitchell is a retired Foreign Service officer who served as a behavioral science adviser for the Near East Bureau of the U.S. Agency for International Development. That assignment was followed by overseas postings in Egypt, Yemen and Guinea- Bissau. After leaving the Service, he was a professor of urban and regional studies at Columbia University, the University of California at Berkeley, the Chinese University of Hong Kong and Florida State University. He has also directed two survey research centers, served as executive director of two state-level task forces and headed a national task force on family policy. Ethical Dilemmas and the Practice of Diplomacy Charles Ray, Uhuru Press, 2017, $8.50/paperback; $3.50/Kindle, 92 pages. Acting in an ethical manner doesn’t always mean obeying the rules and not doing anything illegal. Ethical dilemmas occur when there is a conflict of values between two courses of action, both of which are legal. Though the State Department and other foreign affairs agencies have compre- hensive compliance ethics programs, none of them address such ethical dilemmas. In this slim volume, with a foreword by Ambassador (ret.) 32 NOVEMBER 2017 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL Ruth Davis, a former Director General of the Foreign Service, Charles Ray addresses that gray area, discussing how to make decisions when the choice is between two courses of action that are “right”—an ability Ray believes critical to maintaining the competence and professionalism of the Foreign Service in today’s atmosphere of uncertainty. The author presents numer- ous examples and poses questions for thought, marshaling his own considerable decision-making experience as an army officer and a diplomat. Charles Ray retired from the Foreign Service in 2012 after a 30-year career that included service as U.S. ambassador to Cambodia (2002-2005) and Zimbabwe (2009-2012), deputy assistant secretary of defense for POW/missing personnel affairs (2006-2009) and the first American consul general in Ho Chi Minh City (1998-2001), in addition to postings in China, Thailand and Sierra Leone. He joined the Foreign Service in 1982 after completing a 20-year career in the U.S. Army. Ambassador Ray now devotes himself full-time to writing. Ethical Dilemmas is the latest of more than 60 titles, both non- fiction and fiction, he has published over the years. (See pp. 41 and 47 for five novels he has published in 2016 and 2017.) Beyond Our Degrees of Separation: Washington Monsoons and Islamabad Blues Judith Ravin and Muhammad Hassan Miraj, Inkwater Press, 2017, $13.95/paperback, $3.99/Kindle, 192 pages. Beyond Our Degrees of Separation docu- ments Judith Ravin’s and Muhammad Hassan Miraj’s efforts to understand not just each other, but their respective societies, better. A series of short essays and vignettes written alternately by the two, the book imaginatively documents the learning process undertaken by the “geographi- cally disturbed”—individuals whose perpetual wanderlust motivates them to visit and live in distant lands with different cultures. The co-authors evoke multiple points of intersection between the United States and Pakistan. They transcend their respective realms of U.S. diplomacy and the Pakistan military to uncover a surprising amount of common ground. Themes covered in this book include displacement, social justice, cross-border issues, terrorism, loss and interfaith harmony. Judith Ravin joined the State Department Foreign Service in 2003, after living and working abroad as an editor, translator and journalist. Her first assignment was to Pakistan as deputy