The Foreign Service Journal, November 2007

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 7 offers detailed proposals on current dilemmas from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to Iranian nuclear ambi- tions. The author is currently a distinguished fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Nixon and Kissinger: Partners in Power Robert Dallek, HarperCollins, 2007, $18.95, paperback, 752 pages. After making his reputation as a great historian by writing biographies such as Lyndon B. Johnson (1999) and John F. Kennedy: An Unfinished Life (2004), Robert Dallek presents Nixon and Kissinger: Partners in Power , a detailed portrait of the relation- ship between one of the most controversial recent U.S. presidents and his influential foreign policy collabora- tor. Dallek depicts the unsteady alliance of these two clever, insecure men. At the height of their power, their collaboration and rivalry led to a series of policies that would define the Nixon presidency. It is a collab- oration that, Dallek says, “tells us as much about the opportunities and limits of national and international conditions as about the men themselves.” Or, as Margaret MacMillan points out in a Washington Post review, the book is also “very much a history of the period as seen from inside the Beltway.” Robert Dalleck is a professor of history at Boston University. Leashing the Dogs of War: Conflict Management in a Divided World Chester A. Crocker, Fen Olser Hampson and Pamela Aall (eds.), United States Institute of Peace Press, 2007, $45.00, paperback, 726 pages. Since the end of the Cold War, international conflict has become more fragment- ed and more complicated. Leashing the Dogs of War , a textbook aimed at students of international diploma- cy and conflict management, has more than 40 con- tributors seeking to provide “wide-ranging analyses of the sources of contemporary international conflict, and the means available by which that conflict can be solved.” The major themes include: the sources of con- flict and challenges to global security; the uses and lim- its of coercive action, statecraft and soft power; and the role of international organizations and institutions in conflict management. Chester A. Crocker is the James R. Schlesinger Professor of Strategic Studies at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. He was assistant secretary of State for African affairs from 1981 to 1989 and chairman of the United States Institute of Peace from 1992 until 2004. The Price of Liberty: Paying for America’s Wars Robert D. Hormats, Times Books, 2007, $27.50, hardcover, 350 pages. In this thought-provoking history, Robert D. Hormats, a leading expert on international finance, shows how U.S. presi- dents from both parties — from Jefferson down to the current president — have fol- lowed principles meant to secure the nation through sound finance. Drawing on historical lessons, Hormats argues that the rampant borrowing to pay for the war in Iraq and the shortsighted tax cuts in the face of a long war on terrorism run counter to American tradi- tion and place the nation on dangerous ground. During each of America’s previous wars, U.S. presi- dents have altered fiscal policy to meet military needs. Today, the United States is confronting the challenges of a post-9/11 world with a pre-9/11 monetary policy. To meet the threats facing us, Hormats maintains, we must realign the nation’s economic policies on taxes, Social Security, Medicare, pork-barrel spending, ener- gy use and oil dependency. Robert Hormats is vice chariman of Goldman Sachs (International). He served as assistant secretary of State for economic and business affairs (1981-1982) and as ambassador and deputy U.S. trade representa- tive (1979-1981). OF RELATED INTEREST