The Foreign Service Journal, September 2009

52 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / S E P T E M B E R 2 0 0 9 providing security and basic services to “the people,” largely through civilian development programs. We also need to press host governments and our al- lies to do likewise. In that regard, Kilcullen describes a telling meeting between American advisers and Iraqi national security of- ficials. The U.S. PowerPoint presen- tation focused almost exclusively on identifying and destroying “the enemy.” The Iraqi officials’ eyes glazed over until their turn came to speak; when they focused their briefing on “the people,” the Americans’ minds then wandered off into the ether. Given that state-on-state conflict is decreasing, non-state actors are in- creasingly likely to provide the most important challenges to our national security for the foreseeable future. We “got that” by the end of the Vietnam War and used those lessons to turn around a losing situation in El Sal- vador. We are still using them suc- cessfully today in Colombia. And although it took several catastrophic years to relearn those insights in Iraq and Afghanistan, they will be the secret to any success we may be able to achieve there. The Accidental Guerrilla is a book that every American diplomat, military officer, legislator and person con- cerned with our national security needs to read and comprehend. We simply cannot afford to continue rein- venting the wheel. David Passage, a former ambassador, served with the CORDS program in Vietnam and dealt with insurgencies in Latin America and Africa for much of his career. Since retiring from the For- eign Service in 1998, he has been a lec- turer and mentor at U.S. military schools and training facilities. The Three E’s The Global Deal: Climate Change and the Creation of a New Era of Progress and Prosperity Nicholas Stern, Public Affairs, 2009, $26.95, hardcover, 256 pages. R EVIEWED BY H ARRY C. B LANEY III This volume is likely to be among the most important books of the 21st century, both for its trenchant analysis of the impact of climate change on our planet and for its outline of the best way to address this tremendous threat. Following up on his previous study, The Economics of Climate Change: The Stern Report (Cambridge University Press, 2007), Stern marshals an im- pressive body of new data to calculate what it would take to reach atmos- pheric carbon dioxide levels that might be sustainable without catastrophic consequences to the planet. The book’s middle section focuses on how national and local govern- ments, individuals, companies and communities can address the issue. As Stern explains, energy conservation, higher efficiency levels, and new ap- proaches to buildings and infrastruc- ture are among the most cost-effective policies we can adopt. The key here is the power of example, which can rein- force willingness to move forward on a global scale. In the final part of the book, Stern advocates new and strengthened inter- national structures to cope with this threat and other global challenges. As he acknowledges, this will require col- laboration between developed and de- veloping nations on an unprecedented scale. Speaking as someone who once B O O K S