The Foreign Service Journal, November 2016

30 NOVEMBER 2016 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL Strangers When We Met: A Century of American Community in Kuwait W. Nathaniel Howell, New Academia Press, 2016, $38/paperback, 746 pages. In Strangers When We Met , W. Nathaniel Howell presents the history of Kuwaiti- American relations during the past century. Drawing on personal accounts, official documents and unpublished sources, he tells the story of how two completely different cultures, worlds apart geographically, linguistically, in political systems and in the fundamentals of faith, grew to understand, accept and respect each other. The book traces American-Kuwaiti interaction from the arrival in Kuwait of U.S. doctors, ministers and teachers before oil became a factor to the Iraqi occupation of Kuwait and the First Gulf War, which especially brought the two nations closer together. “Nat Howell’s superb book reminds us of all our two peoples have experienced together over more than a hundred years— and why Kuwait matters,” says Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker of this volume in the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Train- ing’s “Diplomats and Diplomacy” series. W. Nathaniel Howell served as a Foreign Service officer for 30 years in various posts throughout the Middle East, and as U.S. ambassador to Kuwait from 1987 to 1991. After retiring from the Foreign Service, he taught for 23 years at the University of Virginia, retiring as professor emeritus in January 2015. The Last Mufti of Iranian Kurdistan: Ethnic and Religious Implications in the Greater Middle East Ali Ezzatyar, Palgrave Macmillan Press, 2016, $129/hardcover, $99/Kindle,234 pages. “A scholarly treat, and food for politi- cal thought, as well,” is how Thomas W. Simons Jr., a former U.S. ambassador to Pakistan and the author of Islam in a Globalizing World (2003), describes this book built around a biography of Iranian Kurdish leader Ahmad Moftizadeh (1933-1993). An unlikely Islamic scholar, Moftizadeh was an orthodox Sunni Muslim who was comfortable with the notion of Kurdish national- ism and at the same time socially progressive and devoutly nonviolent. A leader of Iran’s Kurdish population during the Iranian Revolution, he cooperated at first with the new regime until it began reneging on promises to the Kurds. The detailed chronicle of Moftizadeh’s life and work, based on personal interviews and rare documentation in both Kurd- ish and Farsi, gives an insider’s view of the complex spiritual and political life of Iranian Kurds under the shahs and in the Islamic Republic. In the final section, the author discusses the evolution of Kurdish nationalism, arguing that Kurds have a uniquely constructive role to play as allies of the West in the broader region. Ali Ezzatyar is a Foreign Service officer with the U.S. Agency for International Development. He is currently posted in Tel Aviv, having previously served as resident legal officer in the Office of the USAID Mission Director in Pakistan. Prior to his diplomatic career, he practiced law at various firms and served as executive director of the Center for Entrepreneurship and Development in the Middle East at the University of California, Berkeley. India at the Global High Table: The Quest for Regional Primacy and Strategic Autonomy Teresita C. Schaffer and Howard B. Schaffer, Brookings Institution Press, 2016, $32/hardcover, 366 pages. This new title from ambassadorial couple and South Asia experts Teresita and Howard Schaffer chronicles India’s post- independence rise and efforts to reclaim its ancient heritage as a world power through democratic governance and widespread development efforts. The Schaffers describe how India sees itself on the world stage, and how it has worked to make its vision a reality through an exploration of four major themes: (1) Indian exceptionalism, (2) the country’s determination to be the primary power in the region, (3) its commitment to nonalignment, and (4) its push for international economic power. They also examine the types of partnerships India is likely to make as it emerges as a world player. Teresita Schaffer spent 30 years in the Foreign Service, serv- ing in India and Pakistan and as U.S. ambassador to Sri Lanka, among other assignments. She is the author of India and the U.S. in the 21st Century: Reinventing Partnership (2009) and other works on India and Pakistan, and is currently a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution. Howard Schaffer spent 36 years in the Foreign Service, serv- ing in India and Pakistan and as U.S. ambassador to Bangla-