THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | JUNE 2025 81 For me, the most painful part comes in the conclusion, when Turner describes the “hammer blows that have rained down on the Foreign Office.” In just a couple of paragraphs, he describes how the “merger between the Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) and the Department for International Development (DFID), coinciding with Brexit and a global COVID-19 pandemic that forced diplomats worldwide to work from home for months, paralysed what was left of the decision-making machinery of both departments.” He concludes: “Wags argued that no hostile power in their wildest dreams could have hoped to create such a combination of measures to handicap British foreign policy in promoting the security and prosperity of the United Kingdom as Brexit and the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) merger.” As an American diplomat who admired and learned from British diplomats in the early years of my career and for the remainder of my career turned to the U.K. as the first partner in addressing just about any challenge the globe tossed up, I cannot help but comment on the implications for American diplomacy of the “hammer blows” to U.K. diplomacy that Turner describes. One of Turner’s really insightful concepts, “load-bearing relationships,” is of great practical significance for diplomats. Writ large, the weakening of British diplomacy means the load American diplomats must bear has grown heavier—just as the challenges the globe tosses up show no signs of abating. Turner’s book, while not necessarily worth reading in its entirety, has useful nuggets scattered throughout. At its best, it is witty, in the manner of some of the great British diplomats I know; at its weakest, it has a plodding, paint-by-numbers feel. But given the task ahead, American diplomats can use all the helpful tips they can find. Ambassador (ret.) Barbara Stephenson served nearly 34 years in the U.S. Foreign Service, including as junior U.K. desk officer, Consul General Belfast, and the first female deputy chief of mission/chargé at the U.S. embassy in London. A Great American Life Get Me Carlucci: A Daughter Recounts Her Father’s Legacy of Service Kristin Carlucci Weed and Frank C. Carlucci III, Disruption Books, 2023, $29.95/hardcover, e-book available, 280 pages. Reviewed by Eric Rubin Was Frank Carlucci the most successful and accomplished Foreign Service officer in the 100-year history of the modern U.S. Foreign Service? He has some competition, including former Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger. A dispassionate assessment, however, would almost certainly give the nod to Carlucci. In a career spanning nearly four decades, Carlucci rose to the pinnacle of American public life, serving as secretary of Defense, national security adviser, deputy national security adviser, deputy secretary of Defense, deputy director of the CIA, and U.S. ambassador to Portugal during the Carnation Revolution of 1974. Like former President Joe Biden, Carlucci grew up in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and his family was of modest means. His rise to power began as an undergraduate at Princeton, then as an MBA student at Harvard. After graduation, he went on to serve in the Navy and in 1956 joined the Foreign Service. Carlucci played an important role at the U.S. consulate general in the Belgian Congo, which became the U.S. embassy upon Congo’s independence in 1960. Despite his youth and lack of seniority, Carlucci quickly came to the attention of Presidents John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Richard Nixon, respectively. What followed was a series of increasingly important assignments. To put it simply, Carlucci impressed pretty much everyone he worked for, and met. Carlucci’s rapid ascent through the ranks of the Foreign Service led to his nomination as U.S. ambassador to Portugal after only 18 years of service. His success in navigating the unstable political crisis that followed the collapse of the Caetano dictatorship brought him more good press and positive attention among policymakers in Washington. Reaching the highest levels of U.S. officialdom followed. He became a favorite of Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. Carlucci’s keen eye for talent led him to recommend then–Brigadier General Colin Powell to President Reagan as deputy national security adviser. Powell succeeded Carlucci as national security adviser and went on to a distinguished career of his own. Biographies of public officials tend to fall into a few categories. The first is academic, scholarly biographies that aim for a dispassionate assessment of a public figure’s life and accomplishments. The second is the genre of tell-all biographies
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy ODIyMDU=