The Foreign Service Journal, November 2006

MEMOIRS Architect of Democracy: Building a Mosaic of Peace James Robert Huntley, New Academia Publishing, 2006, $30.00, paperback, 716 pages. “James Huntley shares with us his incomparable experi- ence of diplomacy and the organization of civil society in a book rich with his wise in- sights,” says the Rt. Hon. Lord Chris Patten, former European commissioner for external relations and governor of Hong Kong, about Architect of Democracy: Building a Mosaic of Peace. A Foreign Service officer with USIA during the 1950s, Mr. Huntley was involved in postwar rehabilitation in Europe. His memoir provides a detailed and insight- ful background to the history of the U.S. occupation of Germany, the early days of NATO, the European Union, the Council of Europe and other important international institutions that have shaped the postwar world. This sixth volume in ADST’s Memoirs and Occasional Papers Series includes a foreword by Brent Scowcroft. Following retirement from the Foreign Service, James Huntley spurred creation of the Atlantic Institute of Paris, was a program executive at the Ford Foundation, a fellow of the Batelle Research Institute and president and CEO of the Atlantic Council of the United States. He is a founder and current vice pres- ident of the Council for a Community of Democra- cies. His previous writings include Uniting the Demo- cracies (New York University Press, 1980) and Pax Democratica (Palgrave Macmillan, 2001). Campus Capers: The Life and Times of a G.I. College Student Allen C. Hansen, 2006, $25.00, paperback, 219 pages. Here is a memoir of what it was like to be a World War II veteran attending college after the war with the help of the G.I. Bill. Thousands of veterans who may not have been able to afford college could now do so, and there is no doubt that the U.S. government and Americans generally were repaid manifold by the contributions later made to society by the great increase in formally educated veterans who became doctors, lawyers, educators and, yes, Foreign Service officers as well. Those who became “G.I. stu- dents” will identify their own experiences with those of the author, and those born later will find this book to be a lively view of a different and distant world. Allen C. Hansen retired from the Foreign Service in 1987 after 32 years with USIA. Since retirement he has written four books, including a second edition of USIA: Public Diplomacy in the Computer Age (Praeger, 1989). To purchase the book, contact the author at (703) 893-2756. The Heydays of Embassies, Foreign Adventures and a Dog Jeanne JieAhn, Studio Publishing and Design, 2006, $16.00, paperback, 256 pages. This memoir describes Foreign Service officer Jeanne JieAhn’s “16 years of foreign adventures” with her dog, Nip- per, from 1985 to 2000. Jie- Ahn began her diplomatic career as a “middle-aged, highly naïve, single mom with empty-nest syndrome.” Nipper was a “young, enchanting sage in a mini-Schnauzer disguise.” Together, this dynamic duo traveled the globe and navigated through the unique diplomatic lifestyle: for- eign culture shock, the “darker side of embassy life,” homesickness and the difficulties of being uprooted and transplanted to unfamiliar societies. JieAhn writes candidly about her challenges abroad, but whether she describes being placed under house arrest in Paris, taking a Finnish-style sauna bath in Helsinki or being stalked by an old ex-Nazi in Santiago, she always main- tains a lively and humorous nature. Jeanne JieAhn served as an office management specialist at Khartoum, Bonn, Santiago, Paris, Helsinki and Brussels. She currently lives in Phoenix, where she writes and paints. This book, her first, can be ordered at www.TheHeyDays.com. Contra Cross: Insurgency and Tyranny in Central America, 1979-1989 William R. Meara, Naval Institute Press, 2006, $26.95, hardcover, 168 pages. “A boots-in-the-mud personal memoir from the 68 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 6