The Foreign Service Journal, November 2008

The dropka evoke freedom. Their world cherishes mobility and the liberty to roam in search of grass and water. Constantly exposed to the elements of nature — rain, snowstorms and drought — they take these events for granted and face them with remarkable equanimity. The values of courage, integrity and gen- erosity that we admire are principles instinctive to nomads. They also have an intimate knowledge of their environment and an amazing ability to handle animals, a skill rare among most people today. For 30 years, Daniel Miller has worked with nomads in Bhutan, Nepal and the Tibetan areas of China, taking photographs to document his research, work and journeys. A rangeland ecologist and pastoral development specialist who first started working with Tibetan nomads in Nepal as a Peace Corps Volunteer in 1974, Miller joined USAID in 2003 as an agriculture officer. He was posted to Afghanistan from 2004 to 2006, and is now serving in New Delhi. Published in Nepal, the book is available online at www.vajra- books.com.np . A Chronology of United States- Iraqi Relations, 1920-2006 Henry E. Mattox, McFarland Publishing, 2008, $39.95, paperback, 200 pages. Today the fates of Iraq and the United States are dramatically intertwined, but this was not always the case. As Henry Mattox asserts in his well researched chronology, “with few other countries have U.S. relations been so completely transformed during the period under review … from nearly non-existent interaction to a point where rela- tions constitute a central concern of America official- dom.” Mattox offers his readers an extensive chronological overview of the political, economic and diplomatic rela- tions between the two countries from 1920 to 2006. Beginning with the United States’ recognition of the importance of Iraq’s oil supply in 1920, the volume goes on to explore significant events and interaction between the two countries in subsequent decades: Iraqi coups and countercoups, the U.S. response to the Iraqi inva- sions of Iran and Kuwait, Gulf War participation and the current war in Iraq, ending with the execution of Saddam Hussein in 2006. Of obvious interest to both historians and political scientists, it provides a basic understanding of the relationship between the two countries over the course of the 20th century — timely information the American public would do well to know. Henry E. Mattox, a retired Foreign Service officer, earned a Ph.D. in American history at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He was a co-founder of the webzine American Diplomacy (http://www.unc . edu/depts/diplomat/), serving as editor from 1996 to 2007. He is also the author of Chronology of World Terrorism, 1901-2001 (McFarland & Company, 2004), and lives in Chapel Hill. The Kremlin and the High Command: Presidential Impact on the Russian Military from Gorbachev to Putin Dale R. Herspring, University Press of Kansas, 2006, $34.95, hardcover, 242 pages. Dale Herspring has observed the Russian armed forces for many years, as a scholar penning articles, a diplomat interacting with various levels of government and as an officer in the U.S. Navy, where he saw the hardships Russian soldiers faced. He gained considerable respect for those who served in its ranks and continued to mon- itor their role as Russian presidential leadership shifted with the disintegration of the Soviet Union. In this volume he examines the Russian military under the leadership of Presidents Mikhail Gorbachev, Boris Yeltsin and Vladmir Putin. He argues that the Soviet army became the weakest link in the Soviet power structure, a demoralized military force facing cri- sis in Afghanistan, struggling to escape the Cold War paradigm and plagued by increased corruption. This fresh and compelling look at Russian leadership is the most complete analysis available on the subject. Dale R. Herspring is a retired Foreign Service offi- cer. See p. 21 for his biographical sketch. At the Elbows of My Elders: One Family’s Journey Toward Civil Rights Gail Milissa Grant, University of Missouri Press, 2008, $24.95, hardcover, 272 pages. “Social history at its finest” is what David Levering Lewis, a New York University professor of history and two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize for biography, calls this memoir by the daughter of a N O V E M B E R 2 0 0 8 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 23