The Foreign Service Journal, April 2010

impotent) League of Nations. Readers may not be surprised that President Franklin Roosevelt insisted on China’s inclusion in the Security Council over the misgivings of Great Britain. But howmany know that FDR also advocated the inclusion of Brazil? Or that Atlantic City and Cape Cod were serious contenders to host the U.N. headquarters—as was Rhode Is- land, which offered to find space any- where in the state for the organization? Bosco also introduces us to now-for- gotten luminaries such as Krishna Menon, India’s topman in New York in the U.N.’s early days. A dramatic pres- ence, he collapsed while speaking dur- ing Council debates on Kashmir in 1957. A joke soon circulated that the surest way to reviveMenon was to wave a microphone under his nose. These and other tidbits keep the story interesting, even as Bosco slogs through lengthy accounts of what may seem to be minor bureaucratic details to many. The one drawback to the book is that it offers a quintessentially Ameri- can view of the United Nations’ role. But the final chapter, “The Council in Context,” takes a more objective stance. So if you are pressed for time, do read that, at least. David Casavis, a periodic contributor to the Journal , teaches at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. He is writ- ing a book about the 1971 murder of Foreign Service staff officer Donald Leahy in Equatorial Guinea. Cautionary Tale or Prophecy? Ultimatum Matthew Glass, Atlantic Monthly Press, 2009, $24.00, hardcover, 433 pages. R EVIEWED BY J OSH G LAZEROFF China and the United States will go to war in the near future over re- sources. Agree or disagree? Discuss. Ultimatum is a novel, but it would be better classified as a foreign policy study. Because it is set in the future (2032), it offers us the chance to con- sider the present with a little bit of per- spective. As climate change becomes real, how far are we willing to go to A P R I L 2 0 1 0 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 65 B O O K S