The Foreign Service Journal, January 2009

68 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / J A N U A R Y 2 0 0 9 For the next administration, Miller urges continued, indeed renewed U.S. engagement despite the limited pros- pects for success. But given the re- gion’s long, ongoing history of assassi- nations, atrocities, massacres and eth- nic cleansing, many readers may be forgiven for concluding that after 4,000-plus years, the inhabitants of this “much too promised land” have learned (and forgotten) nothing. David T. Jones, a retired Senior FSO, participated in a study of the last two years of the Clinton administration’s Middle East peace process conducted by the Office of the Historian. The co- author with David Kilgour of Uneasy Neighbo(u)rs: Canada, the USA and the Dynamics of State, Industry and Culture (Wiley, 2007), a study of U.S.- Canadian relations, he is a regular con- tributor to the Journal . Seeking Colossal Success Why American Foreign Policy Fails: Unsafe at Home and Despised Abroad Dennis C. Jett, Palgrave Macmillan, 2008, $79.95, hardcover, 197 pages. R EVIEWED BY J. B RIAN A TWOOD The title of Dennis C. Jett’s new book, Why American Foreign Policy Fails: Unsafe at Home and Despised Abroad , may strike many readers as hyperbolic. But its contents paint a damning picture of the state of our democracy and the influences that dis- tort the policymaking process. This is a book about lobbyists rep- resenting powerful interests, including foreign nations, and about ideologues who have abandoned pragmatism and, often, the facts themselves to pursue their compulsive views. It also de- scribes an America whose recent lead- ers have assured us that we have the luxury of ignoring important external factors because of our status as the “only remaining superpower.” If those halcyon days ever actually existed, they are certainly long gone. Now, in an era when U.S. power is being challenged by state and non- state actors, Dennis Jett poses the pressing questions that confront us. Can we contain our hubris and the in- ternal forces vying to push policy in one direction or the other? Can we re- sist the recurring urge to isolate our- selves, or to militarize our policy options? Or, are internal political forces so strong, as he suggests, that a more rational, more diplomatic, ap- proach to international challenges is no longer possible? Jett, a retired FSO and former am- bassador to Peru and Mozambique who is now a professor at Penn State University, deplores the use of fear to create “wedge” issues in foreign policy. Vice President Dick Cheney’s 2004 as- sertion that the election of John Kerry “would risk another terrorist attack” — symptomatic of the divisive politics Jett says distorts U.S. policy — continued to echo in 2008, when it was directed against Barack Obama as a candidate who supposedly had too little experi- ence to deal with terrorism. To be fair, the author does not ignore Democratic Party efforts to gain political advan- tage, citing trade protectionism as a similar effort to appeal to an electorate concerned about the loss of jobs. But his focus is mainly on the past eight years of Republican rule. Throughout the book, Jett uses a se- ries of case studies to illuminate policy failures or weaknesses in the decision- making process. He has no patience for the argument that our foreign pol- icy alienates so many people overseas because it is “not understood or artic- ulated properly.” Those who refuse to accept responsibility for poor choices, he says, would “rather hire a new sales- man than change the policy.” He thus argues that public diplomacy is of mar- ginal importance in the absence of sound decisions. Other case studies in- volve missile defense, arms control, Cuba and the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. In his analysis of these cases, Jett re- lies heavily on contemporary periodi- cals. He employs the analytical skills he learned as a diplomat, but there is little evidence that he interviewed today’s professionals. Nor does he acknowl- edge the Bush administration’s diplo- matic achievements in North Korea and Libya. Jett concludes that “American for- eign policy thus far in the 21st century has been a colossal failure.” His solu- tion is for ordinary citizens to become better informed and “participate more actively in [their] democracy.” Many Americans took this advice B O O K S Jett believes those who refuse to accept responsibility for poor decisions would “rather hire a new salesman than change the policy.”