The Foreign Service Journal, January-February 2019

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2019 93 Perhaps the most publicly heralded was the funding in Syria of the “White Hel- mets,” a volunteer rescue organization that has saved thousands of civilians injured in the fighting. CSO also helped reduce election violence in Kenya and conflict in the Niger Delta, catalyze land-mine removal in Burma and strengthen peacebuilding organizations in Honduras. Its most enduring and influential accomplishment, though, may be the development of sophisticated research and analysis on conflicts and planning tools to address them. In Peace Works , Barton draws on his experience to analyze how many Ameri- can conflict interventions have failed and how they could have succeeded. He develops a number of guidelines for such interventions. Among them are the following: • Timely preparation for conflict response does not necessarily lead to intervention, but it provides a broader range of potential responses. • The focus must always be on the people we want to help, who should be engaged as partners in both planning and implementation. • America should practice humility in any interventions and always act as a catalyzing (not colonizing) force. • We have to recognize that opera- tions in conflict zones are inherently risky, and be prepared to accept those risks if we undertake the operations. • Before deciding to intervene in foreign conflicts, we must consider these questions: Does it truly matter to the United States? Is the timing right? Will delay clarify the choice, or worsen pros- pects for success? Can we make a differ- ence to the main drivers of the conflict? Are viable local partners available? These are sound principles, on which most conflict professionals, military as well as civilian, would likely agree. What is the future of CSO and, more generally, American capacity to provide leadership in addressing global con- flicts with diplomacy and development assistance? A joint State Department-USAID- DoD Stabilization Assistance Review was completed and released to Congress in April 2018. Though not yet public, it is reportedly intended to be a guide for U.S. operations in conflict zones and fragile states. It remains unclear whether this plan will be implemented under Sec- retary of State Mike Pompeo, or if such operations will be funded by Congress. Does peace really work, in the sense Rick Barton means, to enhance Ameri- can security in a turbulent world? In this book he makes a good case that proactive efforts to prevent or ameliorate conflicts, along with post-conflict stabilization pro- grams to prevent recurrence, can work if done selectively and skillfully. In practice, however, efforts to enhance U.S. civilian conflict response capacity have been weak and faltering for the past quarter century, and conflict interventions have become increasingly militarized. Prospects that this trend will be reversed under the Trump adminis- tration appear dim. And yet, those who want increased American security in a more peaceful world must continue efforts to improve our peacebuilding and peacekeeping capabilities. Rick Barton’s book provides reasonable guidance for doing so. Jim Bullington is a retired Foreign Service officer and former ambassador who served in Southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa throughout his career. He resides in Wil- liamsburg, Virginia and has written three books: Global Adventures on Less-Traveled Roads: A Foreign Service Memoir (2017); Expeditionary Diplomacy in Action: Sup- porting the Casamance Peace Initiative (2015); and Adventures in Service with Peace Corps in Niger (2007). A Pivotal Moment in U.S.-Philippine Relations Rampage: MacArthur, Yamashita and the Battle of Manila James M. Scott, W.W. Norton & Company, 2018, $32.95/hardcover; $16.86/Kindle, 635 pages. Reviewed by Aloysius M. O’Neill III In his third book onWorldWar II in the Pacific, James Scott describes in arresting detail the horrific 29-day battle to wrest Manila from Japanese control in 1945. Scott is a fluid writer who did a prodigious amount of research in U.S. and Japanese records and in survivors’ accounts. He also interviewedmany Filipino witnesses and victims of the battle. General Douglas MacArthur led the U.S. invasion force. General Tomoyuki Yamashita, the “Tiger of Malaya” who had vanquished the British in Singapore in 1942, was his opponent, although Yamashita was in the northern Philippines during the entire battle. MacArthur’s connections to the Philip- pines were deep. His father had been the military governor when the United States subdued the archipelago starting in 1899; the son had not only served there as a lieu- tenant, but his mother also died inManila, and his only child was born there. By 1937 Douglas MacArthur had become fieldmarshal of the fledgling Phil- ippine Army. In 1942 President Roosevelt ordered him to escape ahead of the invad- ing Japanese, and all during WorldWar II, MacArthur was obsessed with retaking the islands.