The Foreign Service Journal, November 2009

world runs through what Hachigian and Sutphen call the “pivotal powers” — China, the European Union, India, Japan, Russia and the U.S. — nations that may seek more influence and respect within the international system but are not direct military foes and are not trying to usurp America’s role as a superpower. Nina Hachigian is a senior vice president at the Cen- ter for American Progress and a visiting fellow at Stan- ford University. Earlier, she was director for the Center of Asia-Pacific Policy and a senior political scientist at the RAND Corporation. Mona Sutphen, a managing director at Stonebridge International, is a former FSO who served in Bangkok and Sarajevo, where she worked on implementation of the Dayton Peace Agreement. Overtaken on the Information Superhighway: How the U.S. Lost Internet Leadership and What to Do About It Thomas Bleha, BookSurge Publishing, 2009, $15.95, paperback, 332 pages. There is a good chance many readers are viewing this article over a screen, perhaps wirelessly on a handheld device in a moving vehicle. With all the newfangled speed and ac- cessibility of the Internet, it may surprise many to know that, despite how rapidly American “wiredness” seems to be advancing, we have fallen since 2000 from the posi- tion of global Internet leader to a middle-rung power. Bleha’s book examines the reasons for America’s fall and the ways to restore our leadership. Regaining Internet supremacy, says Bleha, is of vital importance to America’s global standing. Increased wiredness could increase productivity, economic growth and job creation, not to mention helping to provide so- lutions to such wide-ranging national issues as health care, education, security and energy conservation. With so much potential, Bleha’s proposal — that America seek to extend fiber broadband and ultrafast wireless na- tionwide by 2016— seems completely rational. In fact, Congress has funded a down payment on such networks, but that is only the beginning of a long process. With the Federal Communications Commission tasked with pro- ducing a new strategy for Internet expansion by early 2010, this book has come along at the right time. Thomas Bleha is a former Foreign Service officer and Japan expert. A recipient of the Abe Fellowship, Bleha spent more than five years researching and writing Overtaken on the Information Highway . His article, “Down to the Wire,” published in the May-June 2005 issue of Foreign Affairs , was one of the first to alert pol- icymakers to the decay in America’s Internet power. Understanding the Americans: A Handbook for Visitors to the United States Yale Richmond, Hippocrene Books, Inc., 2009, $14.95, hardcover, 172 pages. A slim but jam-packed volume, Understanding the Americans is a useful tome of cultural and histori- cal information intended to lessen any potentially awk- ward situation that may arise for foreigners visiting the United States. In Richmond’s own words, he intends to “help you understand America and the Americans, to avoid mak- ing mistakes and to make your trip a success.” He in- cludes idioms and expressions, recommended reading, a brief tutorial on partisan politics and a discourse on the differences between New York City and Washington, D.C. He also offers practical information on how to ex- tend your visa and a comprehensive list of national hol- idays. Yale Richmond is a retired Foreign Service officer who served with the U.S. Information Agency in Ger- many, Laos, Poland, Austria and the Soviet Union, re- tiring as a deputy assistant director for Europe. He is the author of numerous books on cross-cultural com- munications, including From Nyet to Da: Understanding the New Russians (see p. 22). World of Faith and Freedom: Why International Religious Liberty is Vital to American National Security Thomas F. Farr, Oxford University Press, 2008, $29.95, hardcover, 384 pages. By looking deeper into interna- tional “trouble spots” that are ac- companied by a religious component, Thomas R. Farr has constructed a cohesive argument discrediting the ex- plicitly secular diplomacy that the U.S. has made it a point to employ. “The religious enterprise,” he argues, “could benefit not only the individual but also the common good. Re- ligion could sanction ideas of ordered liberty, justice and equality and, in short, become the very engine of a lib- 26 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 9