The Foreign Service Journal, November 2015

52 NOVEMBER 2015 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL husband, journalist Markos Kounalakis, and their two sons in San Francisco. Addressing America: George Washington’s Farewell and the Making of National Culture, Politics, and Diplomacy, 1796-1852 Jeffrey J. Malanson, Kent State University, 2015, $55/hardcover; $46.99/Kindle, 288 pages. In his presidential farewell address of 1796, George Washington presented a series of maxims to guide the construction of a wise foreign policy—perhaps chief among them his admonition to avoid “entangling alliances.” Washington makes a point of warning that nations who may be considered friendly to the United States, as well as its enemies, will try to influence our govern- ment to do their will. But he also believed that true patriots will always resist such inducements and pressures, and will instead do what is best for their fellow Americans. Through its focus on the enduring diplomatic, political and cultural impact of Washington’s Farewell Address , Addressing America reasserts the fundamental importance of this critical document to 19th-century America—as well as its continuing relevance to U.S. foreign policy today. Jeffrey J. Malanson is an assistant professor of history at Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne. Isolate or Engage: Adversarial States, U.S. Foreign Policy and Public Diplomacy Geoffrey Wiseman, Stanford University Press, 2015, $95/hardcover; $27.95/ paperback; $27.95/Kindle, 328 pages. True to its title, each chapter of Isolate or Engage explores how successive presi- dents have reached out to, ignored or tried to destabilize various “problem” countries. Though public diplomacy is the prism through which most contributors view bilateral relations, one need not be a PD specialist to appreci- ate their insights. The authors, a mix of academics and practitioners, include several names familiar to many FSJ readers: retired FSO Wil- liam Rugh, Michael Shifter, Robert D. English and Scott Snyder. Bracketed by introductory and concluding essays by Geoffrey Wiseman, the book’s editor, the chapters deal with, in turn, the Soviet Union/Russian Federation, China, North Korea, Vietnam (both North and South), Libya, Iran, Syria, Cuba and Venezuela. Geoffrey Wiseman is professor of the practice of interna- tional relations and a university fellow at the Center for Public Diplomacy, located at the University of Southern California. The Fortunate Few: IVS Volunteers from Asia to the Andes Thierry J. Sagnier, NCNM Press, 2015, $24.95/paperback, 374 pages. Nearly 1,400 men and women joined International Voluntary Services between 1953 and 2002, offering their time and talents to improve the lives of people in 40 countries. In this volume, some 100 of those volunteers reflect on the work they performed, often under difficult and dangerous conditions, and the impact it had—both on the people and places they served and their own futures. (Several of them later joined the Foreign Service.) The effectiveness of the IVS helped inspire the creation of several other volunteer agencies, including the Peace Corps. Anyone interested in the history of American development efforts will value having The Fortunate Few in his or her library. And today’s generation of volunteers will find these stories a rich source of inspiration. Thierry J. Sagnier is a former World Bank senior writer who has previously published a novel and essay collection, numer- ous magazine and newspaper articles, documentary films and radio scripts about development issues. Foreign Policy Breakthroughs: Cases in Successful Diplomacy Robert Hutchings and Jeremi Suri, Oxford University Press, 2015, $99/hardcover; $29.95/paperback; $19.99/Kindle, 304 pages. Robert Hutchings and Jeremi Suri cer- tainly don’t think small! Drawing on deep historical research, their book aspires to do nothing less than reinvent diplomacy for the 21st century by analyzing such success stories as post-WorldWar II relief, the rise of the nonalignedmovement, the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, the U.S. opening to China, the Camp David Accords and comple- tion of the North American Free Trade Agreement. Robert Hutchings, a periodic contributor to the FSJ , has been dean of the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the