The Foreign Service Journal, September 2019

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | SEPTEMBER 2019 85 the department, Burns looks at the “who lost Russia” debate and concludes laconi- cally: “The truth was that Russia was never ours to lose.” Back to the Middle East: As ambassa- dor in Amman from 1998 to 2001, Burns makes clear his affection and respect for Jordan, and his understanding of the chal- lenges the Hashemite Kingdom has faced over the decades. Subsequently, when he was assistant secretary for Near East affairs, his grasp of the multiple tensions and cross-conflicts throughout the region were put to the test after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and the “muscular” response of the Bush 43 administration, culminating in the invasion of Iraq. Burns pulls no punches: “The Iraq invasion was the original sin. …The 18 months between 9/11 and the invasion of Iraq were one of those hinge points of history, whose contours are easier to see today than they were at that uncertain and emotional time.” Unlimbering the Guns: Burns con- cludes his professional reminiscences with detailed, fascinating descriptions of his return to Putin’s Russia as ambassador, his key role in “Obama’s long game,” its unanticipated interruption by the Arab Spring (“When the short game inter- cedes”), and the delicate secret talks with Iran that produced the 2015 Joint Compre- hensive Plan of Action, since repudiated unilaterally by the current administration. But he saves his most heartfelt shots for last in Chapter 10, titled “Pivotal Power: Restoring America’s Tool of First Resort.” At this point, Burns takes the diplomatic gloves off: “From Joe McCarthy to Donald His description of the Baker team’s textbook management of the collapse of the USSR, the fall of the Berlin Wall and the reunification of Germany within NATO—all without a shot fired in anger—is a highlight. Trump, American demagogues have doubted the loyalty and relevance of career diplomats, seeking to intimidate and marginalize them.” He calls for a top-to-bottom “reinven- tion of diplomacy … developing a clearer sense of diplomatic strategy, with a more rigorous operational doctrine … [and] sharper focus on issues that matter more and more to 21st-century foreign policy, particularly technology, economics, energy and climate.” He adds a warning: “A State Depart- ment in which officers are bludgeoned into timidity, or censor themselves, or are simply ignored, becomes a hollow institu- tion, incapable of the disciplined diplo- matic activism that this moment in history demands of the United States.” My recommendation: read Chapter 10 first. But by all means, read the whole book. There is something to learn, savor and take to heart on virtually every page. n Ambassador Robert M. Beecroft retired from the Foreign Service in 2006, then returned to the State Department until 2016 to lead OIG inspections in Kuwait, Syria, Taiwan, Vietnam, Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania, plus four regional and functional bureaus in Washington. He served as ambassador and head of the OSCE Peacekeeping Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina, special envoy for the Bosnian Federation and chargé d’affaires at U.S. Embassy Sarajevo. Between 1971 and 1996, he served in Washington, D.C., Geneva, Brussels, Paris, Bonn and Cairo, and as deputy chief of mission in Ouagadougou and Amman.