The Foreign Service Journal, November 2012

44 NOVEMBER 2012 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL America’s Other Army: The U.S. Foreign Service and 21st-Century Diplomacy Nicholas Kralev, CreateSpace 2012, $24.99/paperback, 254 pages; $9.99/ Kindle Edition. Who are America’s diplomats? What do they actually do? Most Americans haven’t a clue. In America’s Other Army , Nicholas Kralev presents the U.S. Foreign Service as it is today, shattering old stereotypes and dashing myths and falsehoods about a group of professional public servants whose work affects millions of people in the United States and around the world daily. Released during the week in which the U.S. ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens, and three colleagues were killed in a terrorist attack in Benghazi, this book is very timely. Nicholas Kralev is a writer, educator and speaker on global travel, diplomacy and international affairs. During a nine-year period, he visited 50 embassies, interviewed more than 600 diplo- mats and conducted other research to complete this book. The Last American Diplomat: John D. Negroponte and the Changing Face of U.S. Diplomacy George W. Liebmann, Palgrave Macmillan, 2012, $99, hardcover, 384 pages. John Negroponte, a career FSO, served as ambassador to Honduras, Mexico, the Philippines, and Iraq; U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations, and director of national intelligence and Deputy Secretary of State in the George W. Bush administration. The consummate insider, he was devoted to public service. Self-effacing, he viewed advising, guiding and warning policymakers as his primary duty. In this book, his remarkable career is the lens through which we gain a sharper understanding of not just the man, but the diplomatic history of the Cold War and its aftermath. George W. Liebmann is a Baltimore lawyer and historian who specializes in American and international diplomatic history. He is the author of Diplomacy Between the Wars: Five Diplomats and the Shaping of the Modern World (I.B. Taurus, 2008). Subtle Differences, Big Faux Pas Elizabeth Vennekens-Kelly, Summertime Publishing, 2012, $10.99, paperback, 242 pages. This primer is aimed at helping read- ers avoid making major faux pas that are detrimental to one’s time abroad and also, potentially, one’s career. The author high- lights the many subtle differences among cultures and the ways intercultural awareness can make traveling, working and living overseas more smooth and enjoyable. You will learn about how to handle subtle factors like body language and slang, as well as common misconceptions. Elizabeth Vennekens-Kelly is an intercultural trainer and consultant based in Europe. From 2009 to 2012, she served as chairperson of the Sharing Cultures Task Force of the Federation of American Women’s Clubs Overseas. Real-Time Diplomacy: Politics and Power in the Social Media Era Philip Seib, Palgrave Macmillan, 2012, $25, paperback, 199 pages. With the Arab Spring of 2011 as his labora- tory, Philip Seib examines the implications of social media and the high-speed flow of information for international relations, foreign policymaking, political change and, in particular, diplomatic practice. “Good diplomatic practice should not be tossed aside, but it must adapt to the pace of events more comprehensively than it has to date,” the author states in this timely read. To the terms “tra- ditional diplomacy” and the more recently coined “expeditionary diplomacy,” he adds another: “rapid-reaction diplomacy.” Philip Seib, a professor of journalism, public diplomacy and international relations at the University of Southern California, is the director of USC’s Center on Public Diplomacy. He is the author of several other works on the media and diplomacy. Ten Years Later: Insights on al-Qaeda’s Past & Future through Captured Records—Conference Proceedings Edited by Dr. Lorry M. Fenner, Dr. Mark E. Stout and Ms. Jessica L. Goldings, The Johns Hopkins University Center for Advanced Governmental Studies, 2012, free digital edition, 218 pages. In September 2011, a conference at the National Defense Uni- versity marking the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks brought OF RELATED INTEREST