The Foreign Service Journal, May 2017

68 MAY 2017 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL increase defense spending and tamp down partisanship. I was frankly sur- prised not to find Heritage Foundation papers listed in the endnotes, because much of this chapter could have been lifted from them. Just before the book went to press in January, Haass added a brief foreword, which concludes as follows: “One result of the election is greater uncertainty over the future trajectory of U.S. foreign policy. As the subtitle of this book suggests, support for the old order has crumbled, the result of heightened economic anxiety at home (often associ- ated with globalization, free trade and immigration) and growing doubts about the costs and benefits associated with what the United States has been doing abroad, including fighting several open- ended wars in the Middle East and supporting allies in Europe and Asia. It is significant that Donald Trump, the winning candidate, called for putting America First. “It is, of course, impossible to know what sort of foreign policy will emerge from the United States and how other countries will react. Still, it is difficult not to take seriously the possibility that one historical era is ending and another beginning.” With uncertainty still the dominant feature of U.S. foreign policy, let us hope that Mr. Haass’ thoughtful, reality-based recommendations will be given the consideration they deserve by the Trump administration’s national security and foreign policy team. n Steven Alan Honley, a State Department Foreign Service officer from 1985 to 1997, was editor in chief of The Foreign Service Journal from 2001 to 2014. From England to Egypt, Pakistan to Haiti... The collection of funny and moving essays on overseas life you’ve been waiting for. Nasty, Brutish, and Short Out Now on Amazon!