THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2026 41 small island developing states to mainland Africa, this contributed volume, edited by Donald Sparks, showcases how ports, fisheries, tourism, and urbanization currently contend with sea level rise, storms, inequality, and “blue crimes”—or transnational maritime offenses—that take place across oceans or cause harm to marine environments. Donald Sparks was a Foreign Service Reserve officer from 1976 to 1980. Profit vs. Progress: Why Socially Responsible Investment Doesn’t Work and How to Fix It Brad Swanson, MIT Press, 2026, $32.95/hardcover, e-book available, 216 pages. Socially responsible investment promises to make investors richer and the world better, but fails at both. Profit vs. Progress dissects the massive $30 trillion “socially responsible” or “sustainable” finance industry—and finds the emperor has no clothes. Sustainable investing makes social and environmental crises harder to overcome by using financial gimmickry to distract our attention from real solutions. Corporations in competitive markets act without moral values, and ethical investment can’t prod them to take greater social responsibility. The solutions will have to come from legislatures, not corporate boardrooms. The author shows that in previous eras of social crisis caused by corporate excess, meaningful reforms emerged through the political process. The path forward is clear—if we have the will to follow it. Brad Swanson was an FSO with the State Department from 1979 to 1986, serving in Dakar, Monrovia, and Washington, D.C. He is currently based in Vienna, Virginia.
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