The Foreign Service Journal, November 2005

book introduces students to the entire sweep of Arabic intellectual, political and cultural thought, offering important insights into the Arab mind. It has been hailed as a “wonderful resource” by the Northeast Conference on the Teaching of Foreign Languages. Bassam K. Frangieh, the spouse of a recently-retired FSO, is a senior lecturer in the department of Near East languages and civilizations at Yale University. An American Soldier in World War I Robert Sherwood Dillon, Five and Ten Press, 2005, $5.00, paperback, 49 pages. In piecing together the story of his own father’s experience in World War I, Robert Sherwood Dillon pored over a sheaf of letters from his father to his mother during the war, and delved into the literature on that war and the period. Reticent by nature and cul- ture —men of his generation did not believe in exhibit- ing emotion — Dillon Sr. had rarely spoken of his wartime experiences. When asked by a grandson, he says only: “You don’t want to know.” It turns out that the 35th Division, where Dale Crowell Dillon ended up after enlisting in the Kansas National Guard at age 18 and being assigned to the Kansas Engineer Company, had a very difficult time in the Meuse-Argonne campaign, where it took heavy casualties. Following the war a controversy developed over the division’s performance and leadership. The author recounts this history, interwoven with specifics on his father. The result is an essay that casts light on all the young soldiers in World War I, and the experience of war in general. Robert Sherwood Dillon is a retired FSO and for- mer ambassador to Lebanon. He is also the author of a personal memoir, One of the Very Best Men (Five and Ten Press, 2004). The Truth about Camp David: The Untold Story about the Collapse of the Middle East Peace Process Clayton E. Swisher, Nation Books, 2004, $14.95, paperback, 451 pages. “This may not be the definitive ‘truth about Camp David,’ but it warrants careful attention from all who would learn from the history of negotiations to secure peace in the Holy Land.” This is what L. Carl Brown, writing in Foreign Affairs , said of The Truth about Camp David , in which author Clayton Swisher challenges the prevailing view that a Palestinian refusal to entertain a generous offer from Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak sank the last bid for Middle East peace. A year after the talks, Swisher conducted extensive interviews with Israeli, American and Palestinian officials closely involved with the July 2000 to January 2001 negotiations at Camp David. The result was a very different, more complex and highly nuanced picture, one which the author feels is essential to grasp if progress is ever to be made on resolv- ing the Arab-Israeli dispute. A former Marine reservist, Clayton E. Swisher served as a special agent in the Bureau of Diplomatic Security and was assigned to the Secretary of State and visiting Arab and Israeli leaders in support of the Oslo process, including trips to Jerusalem, Ramallah, Washington and Camp David. He is now an associate with a Middle East consulting firm in Washington, D.C. POLICY ISSUES Foreign Aid: Will It Ever Reach Its Sunset? Ludwig Rudel, Foreign Policy Association Headline Series, 2005, $8.99, paperback, 68 pages. This monograph reviews the state of foreign assistance 50 years after its post-World War II beginnings as short-term assistance to former European colonies gaining independence, and adds some fresh ideas to the debate over its future. Does concessional aid nec- essarily create dependency? Can it be made to create the basis for its own termination? Not as things presently stand, says Ludwig Rudel. Part of the prob- lem, he observes, is that the distinction between humanitarian assistance and development investment has been blurred if not lost. Further, he argues, major changes in the “aid relationship” between donor and recipient are needed to bring about conditions in which aid programs can achieve their objective of poverty alleviation within a reasonable time frame, and become F O C U S 30 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 5