The Foreign Service Journal, November 2012

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | NOVEMBER 2012 27 capped by appointment as ambassador to Mauritania. He has written three other history books, most recently Incidental Archi- tect: WilliamThornton and the Cultural Life of Early Washington, D.C., 1794-1828 (Ohio University Press, 2009). He serves on the editorial board of the Foreign Service Journal. China and Africa: A Century of Engagement David H. Shinn and Joshua Eisenman, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2012, $69.95, hardcover, 544 pages. David Shinn and Joshua Eisenman took on a colossal task in this endeavor to cover a century of Chinese engagement in Africa. But their extensive travel, 400-plus inter- views and focus on post-1949 relations make China and Africa , the first large-scale study of that relationship since 1971, a suc- cess. With Beijing’s economic clout and population of 1.3 billion and the continent’s great potential, there can be little doubt that Chinese-African relations will be enormously significant in the coming decades. The book is well organized and systematic. The authors cover broad topics, such as the two main phases of Chinese foreign policy and the ethical implications of Beijing’s non-interference stance, through case studies like China’s loss of face in Burundi after supporting the wrong side in the Hutu-Tutsi conflict. The second half of the book is devoted to a review of each country’s specific bilateral relationship with Beijing. The authors conclude with predictions for the relationship in the future. Joshua Eisenman and retired FSO David H. Shinn are a power team on this subject. Shinn, a former U.S. ambassador to Ethiopia and Burkina Faso, now teaches international affairs at The George Washington University. He has also co-authored The Historical Dictionary of Ethiopia (Scarecrow Press, 2004). Eisenman is a senior fellow in China studies at the American Foreign Policy Council and teaches comparative politics at New York University. Run for the Mountains Gordon Young, Xlibris, 2011, $19.99, paperback, 204 pages. The mountains of Northern Thailand hold a culture of their own, character- ized by personal strength, will power, tradition and navigating the land. As Chanu Hkeh, the subject of this biogra- phy, muses: “Run for the hills. That was something that would come up again and again in my life.” The Lahu name Chanu Hkeh means “Mr. Wild Cattle Dung” in English. After spontaneously giving birth to him under a crabap- ple tree in the wilderness of the mountains, Chanu Hkeh’s mother chose that name deliberately. In Lahu tribal culture, the uglier the name, the safer the child will be from evil. The spell held for 52 years, until Chanu Hkeh’s tragic death in a car accident. During those years, he lived a life of adven- ture, danger and joy in the corrupt opium-trading society of the Golden Triangle of Southeast Asia. But whether as a hunter, smuggler, bandit or prisoner, he never stopped running back periodically into the cover and comfort of the mountains. While working with Chanu Hkeh, Gordon Young spent long sessions around camp fires and the two formed a 15-year bond. In Run for the Mountains , Young tells the life story of his uniquely adventurous friend. Gordon Young, a retired FSO with USAID, grew up in the mountain villages of northernThailand that inspired this work, as well as a novel, The Wind Will Yet Sing (see p. 42), and his autobi- ography, Journey from Banna (see p. 39). Privileged and Confidential: The Secret History of the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board Kenneth Michael Absher, Michael C. Desch and Roman Popadiuk; University Press of Kentucky, 2012, $39.95, hardcover, 515 pages. The war on terrorism since the tragedy of 9/11 reveals the growing significance of intelligence analysis in an increasingly globalized world. As interest in the subject has grown, one critical executive agency has managed to remain under the radar: the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board. In Privileged and Confidential , authors Kenneth Absher, Michael Desch and Roman Popadiuk combined their areas of expertise to present a groundbreaking analysis of this lone agency’s history. The PIAB, originally the President’s Board of Consultants on Foreign Intelligence Activities, was founded by President Dwight Eisenhower in response to the Soviet threat. Since then, it has been party to nearly every critical foreign intelligence inves- tigation. The think-tank has unlimited access, but because its mandate is limited to making recommendations, its influence depends on the president in power. This account chronicles the agency’s past by evaluating the board’s activities under each president since Eisenhower.