The Foreign Service Journal, January 2009

relationship up close, where “even in the occasional period of intense acri- mony, cooperation governs the rela- tionship.” Managing the President’s Message: The White House Communications Operation truly offers something for everyone. The diplomat will find in- sights on presidential choices and ma- neuvers in foreign affairs, while the historian can plow through compre- hensive tables that show — for exam- ple — which president gave the most frequent press conferences. (By the way, it was Calvin Coolidge, known in his day as “Silent Cal.”) And every reader will find a book characterized by relentless organization and a luxury of anecdotes and descriptive detail. Public diplomacy practitioners should make this book professional reading. Kumar compares how four recent presidents struck the balance between communication planning and responding to the media. As she ex- plains, inside the White House the press secretary reacts to the demands of the press corps, whose agenda hardly matches that of the administra- tion. Meanwhile, the communications chief (given different titles in each ad- ministration) plans how the White House will try to use the media to pub- licize presidential policies. Every U.S. ambassador must strike the same balance in miniature: the re- sponsibility to answer to the public through the news media while advanc- ing the government’s policy goals in country. Though only the largest U.S. embassies have a dedicated press spokesman, the challenges of handling the global news media will be familiar to every public affairs officer. The author also painstakingly traces the shifting balance between the influ- ence of press secretaries and commu- nications directors over the years. One constant has been steady growth in the numbers of staff involved. While Grover Cleveland relied on a single private secretary, the current press and communications staff totals 108 — larger than the staff advising on eco- nomic and domestic policy. At the end of her book, Kumar puts the whole thing in context: communi- cation has never solved political or pol- icy questions. However, she does point out that the two modern presidents who failed to be re-elected — Jimmy Carter and George H.W. Bush—were the ones who showed the least interest in managing their message to the pub- lic. Image and information are neces- sary if not sufficient. Though this book was published in 2007, Kumar continues to focus on this topic as communications lead for the White House Transition Project. The new administration is likely to seek new ways to reach beyond the main- streammedia to social networks via the Internet. Observers will find no better baseline for interpretation of its suc- cess, or failure, than Managing the President’s Message. Joe B. Johnson, a former FSO, has au- thored three online training courses in media relations for the Foreign Service Institute. No Mere Cookbook Cuisines of the Axis of Evil and Other Irritating States: A Dinner Party Approach to International Relations Chris Fair, The Lyons Press, 2008, $24.95, hardcover, 336 pages. R EVIEWED BY K APIL G UPTA Flagrantly defying categorization, Chris Fair’s Cuisines of the Axis of Evil and Other Irritating States is an entertaining smorgasbord of far- flung recipes, international political history, high- and low-brow trivia, impassioned op-ed and autobio- graphic travel writing. In other words, this book synthesizes dis- parate elements of a stereotypic For- eign Service traveling library into one practical tome. Written during a professional tran- sition from the United States Institute of Peace to the RAND Corporation, Fair pairs cutting analysis with chop- ping onions. Evoking the ironic tone of Economist captions, the prose os- cillates between policy wonkery and gastroporn. The countries covered are a top-10 list of political hot spots: North Korea, Iran, Iraq, Cuba, Israel, India, Pakistan, Burma, China — and also the United States. Fair’s country summaries are amusing but well-researched explana- tions of contemporary political con- flicts — along with the dishes that feed the participants. Artfully citing authoritative sources, Cuisines is likely the only cookbook with foot- notes citing State’s annual human rights reports, the Pew Global Atti- tudes Project and the International Crisis Group. The country reviews segue to the Public diplomacy practitioners should make this book professional reading. 70 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 B O O K S