78 JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2025 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL embassy’s efforts to evacuate Americans from Russia, personally processing people at the airport before their departure. Two Central Characters Two people loom large throughout Sullivan’s memoir—his wife, Grace Rodriguez, and George Kennan, former FSO and ambassador to the Soviet Union and author of the well-known policy of containment, which guided the United States in its relationship with the Soviet Union for nearly 50 years. Ambassador Sullivan kept copies of Kennan’s “Long Telegram” and “X” articles in his Moscow office and refers to the precepts in those writings throughout his book to reveal that many of Putin’s pronouncements and actions have their origins in the Soviet period. In Midnight in Moscow, Sullivan also urges the United States to pursue a 21stcentury version of Kennan’s containment policy vis-à-vis Putin’s Russia, underscoring that the United States and its allies must remain resolute in their support for Ukraine because disengagement would spell disaster for the United States, Europe, and much of the world. Grace Rodriguez’s role in Sullivan’s memoir is even more central than Kennan’s. A successful and well-respected attorney, Grace was—to borrow a term from “The Godfather,” Ambassador Sullivan’s favorite movie—his consigliere, or chief adviser, the person who supported the ambassador most throughout his distinguished career in government in senior positions at four cabinet agencies for presidents of both parties. With every new position the ambassador seeks or is asked to consider, Grace is the first and last person to sign off on the decision. Unfortunately, due to circumstances beyond their control, they were separated for much of the ambassador’s tenure in Moscow—they were apart for well over a year due to the pandemic, missed spending multiple major holidays together, and had more than one vacation interrupted or canceled due to Putin’s irrational desire to go to war. Undoubtedly, the most moving chapter in Sullivan’s memoir is titled “Two Funerals.” Grace’s sudden and tragic death, and the ambassador’s 11th-hour arrival from Moscow (after attending the funeral of Mikhail Gorbachev) to be with his wife on her hospital deathbed, is depicted in such a moving way that readers may have to put the book down briefly to collect themselves. Ultimately, Midnight in Moscow is the story of a dedicated public servant who successfully served his country in one of the most challenging positions in the Foreign Service. Ambassador Sullivan took a nonpartisan, savvy approach to contend with an unscrupulous adversary; exhibited unwavering, positive leadership of an embassy under duress; and prioritized his own employees and his fellow American citizens above himself. He did all of this—and more— because, as he notes at the end of his memoir, he “believes in America.” His is an example for all State Department leaders to follow. Bart Gorman is a retired Diplomatic Security special agent who served in Moscow (three times), Yerevan, Almaty, Beijing, Amman, Baghdad, and Washington, D.C., rising to the rank of deputy assistant secretary. His last assignment was deputy chief of mission in Moscow. He retired in 2023 and now works for Bechtel as its chief security officer and as a visiting instructional professor at George Mason University’s Schar School of Government and Policy. The Future of Democracy Autocracy, Inc.: The Dictators Who Want to Run the World Anne Applebaum, Doubleday, 2024, $27.00/hardcover, e-book available, 224 pages. Reviewed by Steven Alan Honley Anne Applebaum’s latest book, her fifth, warns that the world’s dictatorships— Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea, among others—are working together (and with prominent American billionaires) to enhance their power and undermine the West. Autocracy, Inc. is a must-read for anyone who cares about the international order and the future of democracy—both at home and abroad. In her introduction, Applebaum sets forth the traditional view of an autocratic state: A bad guy (or group of bad guys) at the top controls the police, using the threat of violence and imprisonment against citizens to keep a viselike grip on power. That setup, in turn, enables regime members to profit from monopolies they, their supporters, and family members create and operate— i.e., “Autocracy, Inc.” That view is still broadly accurate in many countries. But what it misses, as Applebaum details, is the rise during this century of networks that not only support these autocracies but extend their reach—not just to neighboring countries but across the globe. Chapter 1, “The Greed That Binds,” documents an uncomfortable truth about capitalism. Far too many Americans, Brits, and Europeans have been happy to allow Russia and other authoritarian governments to “invest” (launder) money in their countries, no questions
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