The Foreign Service Journal, November 2004

do not have to be an entrepreneur to find this book of great practical value. The author sees his approach to the analysis of culture in the Mexican-U.S. relationship as transferable: “Once we have learned to recognize the patterns of another culture and to hold the mirror up to ourselves, we will be better at ‘cracking the cultural code’ in China, Brazil or wherever we go.” As Crouch explains, he did not come by cultural flu- ency only as a result of his 30-year international busi- ness career, but rather from the experience of growing up in a Foreign Serivce family, shuttling from post to post through Latin America and Europe, learning to survive in different cultures. Bush League Diplomacy: How the Neoconservatives Are Putting the World at Risk Craig R. Eisendrath and Melvin A. Goodman, Prometheus Books, 2004, $26.00, hardcover, 268 pages. In this comprehensive critique of the Bush administration’s han- dling of international relations, Craig Eisendrath and Melvin Goodman discuss the folly and the dangers of abandoning diplomacy and relying on military force as the chief means of conducting U.S. foreign policy. The authors see the international community becoming dangerously unstable, not more secure, under a Pax Americana maintained by military might. Both Eisendrath, a former FSO, and Goodman are senior fellows at the Center for International Policy in Washington, D.C. Eisendrath is the author of The Phantom Defense: America’s Pursuit of the Star Wars Illusion (2001) and At War with Time: The Wisdom of Western Thought from the Sages to a New Activism for Our Time (2003; see next entry). Goodman, a former CIA official, is a professor of international security at the National War College and an adjunct professor at Johns Hopkins University. He is the author of Gorbachev’s Retreat: The Third World (1991) and The Wars of Eduard Shevardnadze (1997). At War with Time: The Wisdom of Western Thought from the Sages to a New Activism for Our Time Craig Eisendrath, Helios Press, 2003, $24.95, paperback, 293 pages. How does one find meaning in today’s unstable, ever-changing world? That is the question former FSO and social critic Craig Eisendrath asks in this book. He demonstrates in an incisive, cross- disciplinary review of Western thought that our ancestors found meaning in the face of crisis by adhering to what he terms “beliefs of permanence” — the idea of an eternal soul, an almighty God, fixed nat- ural laws and historical purpose — beliefs, however, that have been undermined by modern science and his- tory. The author suggests the beginnings of a new phi- losophy that embraces the reality of impermanence, and at the same time inspires us with a new sense of activism and a constructive approach to the future. Craig Eisendrath has written several books (see the previous entry), and is also an accomplished novelist and playwright. He is a co-founder of the National Constitution Center, and lives in Philadelphia. Where Is the Lone Ranger When We Need Him? America’s Search for a Postconflict Stability Force Robert M. Perito, United States Institute of Peace Press, 2004, $19.95, paperback, 400 pages. “A unique, badly needed compi- lation of international policing and constabulary capabilities and a description of how they have been used” is how Ambassador Robert B. Oakley describes this book. Though the U.S. has played the primary role in organizing and leading post-conflict sta- bility operations, Robert M. Perito’s extensive research raises serious questions about how well prepared the U.S. is for these nonmilitary tasks. The author makes proposals for the creation of a U.S. Stability Force composed of constabulary, police and judicial teams of lawyers, judges and corrections officers. Perito, a retired career FSO, is a visiting lecturer at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and an adjunct profes- sor at George Mason and American Universities. He is a special adviser to the U.S. Institute of Peace’s Rule of Law Program and a former fellow of the Institute. F O C U S N O V E M B E R 2 0 0 4 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 21