THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | NOVEMBER 2023 27 Hobbes’s Creativity James J. Hamilton, Palgrave Macmillan, 2023, $119.99/hardcover, e-book available, 271 pages. In Hobbes’s Creativity, retired FSO James J. Hamilton examines the work of Thomas Hobbes, focusing on the effect of the philosopher’s environment and culture on his creative thinking and development. Hamilton first studied Hobbes as a graduate student. But upon retiring from a 26-year Foreign Service career in 2006, and while casting about for a new hobby or interest, he discovered that research focused on Hobbes had expanded dramatically, and he decided to take a fresh look. Hamilton defines “creativity” before moving on to an overview of Hobbes’s upbringing, education, personality, and passions, all of which led the young philosopher to develop his ideas on political theory and what he called the “state of nature.” James Hamilton joined the Foreign Service in 1979, serving in Porto Alegre, Lisbon, The Hague, Luanda, and at the U.S. Mission to International Organizations in Vienna over a 26-year career. He has a Ph.D. in political science from Columbia University and taught briefly at Purdue University in Indiana. Imperfect Partners: The United States and Southeast Asia Scot Marciel, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers/The Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center, 2023, $39.95/paperback, e-book available, 560 pages. Part memoir, part foreign policy explainer, Imperfect Partners begins in 1986, 10 months after author Scot Marciel moves to Manila to begin his first Foreign Service assignment. As he returns home from a date with his future wife, Marciel unwittingly drives through a protest
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