The Foreign Service Journal, November 2003

F O C U S 34 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / N O V E M B E R 2 0 0 3 The Great North Korea Famine: Famine, Politics and Foreign Policy Andrew S. Natsios, U.S. Institute of Peace, 2002, $19.95, paperback, 320 pages. A government-created famine killed approximately three million North Koreans between 1994 and 1999. Andrew Natsios, USAID’s administrator since 2001, was vice president of World Vision U.S. at the time, and worked to organize an international response to the crisis in the face of Pyongyang’s largely successful efforts to cover up the full extent of the crisis. Natsios has drawn on a wide range of sources, including interviews with North Korean refugees, to write this gripping account of the politics of humanitarian aid. Of Paradise and Power: America and Europe in the New World Order Robert Kagan, Alfred A. Knopf, 2003, $18.00, hard- cover, 103 pages. This is a book-length elaboration of an essay Robert Kagan — who served in the State Department from 1984 to 1988, and is now senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace — originally wrote in 2002 for Policy Review. Reviewing it in the July-August 2003 FSJ , Paulo Almeida noted that Kagan views the U.S. as being from Mars, responding to threats with military force, while Europe is from Venus, responding “through engage- ment and seduction, through commercial and political ties, through forbearance and patience.” Despite Kagan’s tenden- cy to be simplistic in his analysis, Almeida calls Of Paradise and Power a thoughtful, sometimes witty, description of why Europeans react the way they do to their American allies. Coalitions – Building and Maintenance: The Gulf War, Kosovo, Afghanistan, War on Terrorism Andrew J. Pierre, Institute for the Study of Diplomacy, 2002, $10.00, paperback, 112 pages. Praising this book on the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy’s Web site (http://www.guisd.org, w here you can also order it), Ambassador Thomas R. Pickering says: “This excellent overview of an apt, complex and controver- sial subject will tell you what worked and what didn’t in past efforts to build coalitions to deal with crises and con- flict. The clear secret is that strategic thinking, good plan- ning, and careful preparation spell the difference between success and failure in this increasingly important field of international affairs.” Defiant Diplomacy: Henrik Kauffmann, Denmark, and the United States in World War II and the Cold War, 1939-1958 Bo Lidegaard (translated by W. Glyn Jones), Peter Lang USA (New York) and Peter Lang AG (Bern), Modern European History Series and ADST- DACOR Diplomats and Diplomacy Series, 2003, $78.95 (library edition), $68.00 (ADST and DACOR members’ price), hardcover, 392 pages. This book, the 18th volume in the ADST-DACOR Diplomats and Diplomacy Series, depicts the extraordi- nary life of diplomat Henrik de Kauffmann (1888-1963), a major figure in Danish-American relations during World War II and the first decades of the Cold War as Denmark’s envoy to Washington. Kauffmann experienced Mussolini’s 1922 march on Rome, Chiang Kai-shek’s seizure of power in China in the late 1920s, Norway’s preparation for war in the 1930s, and, from Washington, Denmark’s occupation by Germany in 1940, its liberation in 1945, and its reluctant engagement in the Cold War. The Danish original appeared in 1996, garnering rave reviews and a sold-out first printing on the day of publi- cation, with four new printings issued within one month. It headed the Danish best-seller list for 18 weeks and later appeared in paperback. La guerre d’Algerie vue par Francis De Tarr, diplomate americain [The War in Algeria as seen by Francis de Tarr, an American diplomat] (1960, 1961-1962) David Raphael Zivie, L’Harmattan, 2003, 24 euros, paperback, 294 pages. While the fact that this book is entirely in French undoubt- edly limits its audience, it may appeal to readers interested in issues such as Franco-American relations, decolonization, guerrilla warfare and, most of all, France’s painful disengage- ment from Algeria. Of Related Interest