The Foreign Service Journal, March 2020

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | MARCH 2020 77 long commitment to reproduce the American model of free- market democracy around the world. They recite familiar indictments to explain this phenomenon, such as growing fears about immigration and competition from China. They also include a fascinating reading of Spike Lee’s film “BlacKkKlansman” to discuss the status anxiety of some white Ameri- cans. The book’s most disquieting thesis is that Americans are renouncing their role of, in Woodrow Wilson’s words, carrying “liberty and justice and the principles of humanity wherever you go.” The authors back up their argument with presiden- tial statements declaiming America’s status as a “normal” country—i.e., a country that behaves ruthlessly and amorally in pursuit of its interests— rather than upholding its status as a shining exemplar to the world. Some form of anti-exceptionalism (call it isolationism or realpolitik) has always existed in the United States, and it’s only natural that such sentiments would wax now, in the era of open- ended wars in the Middle East, political sclerosis and economic insecurity. But let’s also remember that some 90 per- cent of Americans support our country playing a global leadership role. On this question, American history flows in cycles. A more profound question raised by the authors is whether liberal democ- racy’s strength is atrophying in the absence of its former sparring partner, Soviet communism, which previously prompted us to live up to our ideals, conscious that we were in an existential competition with a force bent on under- mining them. Though the Cold War is over, George Kennan’s warning stands: “The greatest A Special Class of Diplomat The Ambassadors: America’s Diplomats on the Front Lines Paul Richter, Simon & Schuster, 2019, $28/hardcover, $14.99/Kindle, 352 pages. Reviewed by Gordon Gray 2019 was the year of the diplomat. Specifically, it was the year that the professionalism, patriotism and fact- based approach of public servants was thrust into the limelight by circumstances far beyond the diplomats’ control. And fortunately for Foreign Service officers and members of the public alike, 2019 also saw the publication of two superb accounts of diplomatic work. The first was The Back Channel: A Memoir of American Diplomacy and the Case for Its Renewal by career diplomat (and former Deputy Secretary of State) William Burns. Several months later, former Los Angeles Times national security correspondent Paul Richter released The Ambassadors , a wonderful complement to The Back Channel and no less important. Richter does not delve into Washington policymaking to the degree Ambassador Burns does (see the review of The Back Channel in the October 2019 FSJ ). Instead, he vividly illuminates diplomatic work overseas by profiling four Foreign Service officers who sought the toughest assign- ments available, from Libya to Pakistan: Ryan Crocker, Robert Ford, Anne Patter- danger that can befall us in coping with … Soviet communism is that we shall allow ourselves to become like those with whom we are coping.” Exhibit A is the assault on truth, the twisting of reality to serve partisan or personal agendas, turbocharged by social media. Suffused with original thought and sources from literary theory, psychol- ogy and other disciplines, The Light that Failed enriches our understanding of Europe and the history of ideas. But one clear message is hardly new: national- ism in all its varieties (e.g., ethnic, popu- list, linguistic) seems destined to remain one of the motive forces of history for the foreseeable future. The authors remind us that national- ism provided much of the energy that defeated communism. More recently, it has been har- nessed to promote Brexit and fuel resurgent tension between Korea and Japan, to give just two examples. Rather than declar- ing nationalism outdated or bigoted, perhaps liberal internationalists should heed Jill Lepore’s advice ( Foreign Affairs , March/April 2019) and develop a “liberal nationalism” to contend with the illiberal strain that has ascended—not for the first time—in the United States and elsewhere. Eric Green is an FSO now serving as an associate dean in the Foreign Service Institute’s Leadership and Management School. His previous assignments include serving as deputy chief of mission in War- saw and director of the Office of Russian Affairs. He is a former member and chair of the FSJ Editorial Board. The views ex- pressed do not necessarily represent those of the U.S. government.