The Foreign Service Journal, November 2008

Unintended Consequences: How War in Iraq Strengthened America’s Enemies Peter W. Galbraith, Simon and Schuster, 2008, $23.00, hardcover, 203 pages. Peter Galbraith, the first U.S. ambassador to Croatia, has been described by New York Times columnist David Brooks as the “smartest and most devastating” critic of President GeorgeW. Bush’s Iraq policies. “In this angry and passionate book, Peter Galbraith lays out the disas- trous consequences of the Bush years,” says Richard Holbrooke, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. “The next president will inherit the mess; let’s hope he absorbs the lessons of Galbraith’s work, and acts on them.” Galbraith is also the author of the bestselling The End of Iraq: How American Incompetence Created a War Without End (Simon & Schuster, 2006). He is cur- rently the senior diplomatic fellow at the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation and a contributor to The New York Review of Books. He lives in Vermont. Liberty’s Best Hope: American Leadership for the 21st Century Kim Holmes, The Heritage Foundation, 2008, $12.95, paperback, 192 pages. “Dr. Holmes offers an in- sightful, and on some occasions an uncomfortable, analysis of American foreign policy, and he provides a sharp and informed blueprint to guide future decisionmakers,” is how former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher describes this book. Holmes argues for a return to principled, conservative American lead- ership, making the case that America still remains “lib- erty’s best hope” around the world. Kim Holmes has been vice president of foreign and defense policy studies at The Heritage Foundation and director of its Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute for International Studies since 1992, with the exception of a three-year break from 2005 to 2008 when he served as assistant secretary of State for internation- al organization affairs. Negotiating Arab- Israeli Peace Daniel C. Kurtzer and Scott B. Lasensky, 2008, $16.50, paperback, 210 pages. In the fall of 2006 the authors formed The United States Institute of Peace’s Study Group on Arab-Israeli Peace- making, which they co-direct, bringing together some of America’s most experienced authorities in the field to explore how the U.S. can aid in the peace process. The group’s timely report offers an interest-based framework for America’s role in the peace process, provides an assessment of post–Cold War U.S. diplomacy, sets forth 10 lessons learned over the course of this process and, finally, presents a set of recommendations for future administrations. Daniel C. Kurtzer is a retired FSO and former ambassador to Israel and Egypt, who currently holds the S. Daniel Abraham Chair at Princeton Univer- sity’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and Inter- national Affairs. Scott B. Lasensky is a senior research associate and Middle East expert at the United States Institute of Peace. America’s Midlife Crisis: The Future of a Troubled Superpower Gary R. Weaver and Adam Mendelson, Intercultural Press, 2008, $24.95, paperback, 262 pages. “ America’s Midlife Crisis is a provocative, thoughtful book offering a multifaceted and compelling understanding of America at the dawn of the new century,” says Wendy Chamberlin, former ambassador to Pakistan and Laos and currently presi- dent of the Middle East Institute. “This book is essen- tial reading for anyone — within or beyond America’s borders —who is trying to understand the country’s for- eign policy and the culture behind it.” 38 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 8 OF RELATED INTEREST