The Foreign Service Journal, November 2016

32 NOVEMBER 2016 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL “This is a key exposition of major errors and foibles of policy and execution along with critical ideas for the major course corrections that should be pursued to get us out of the deep holes Freeman shows clearly we and others have dug for our- selves,” says former U.S. under secretary of State and six-time ambassador Thomas R. Pickering . Duringmore than 30 years in the Foreign Service, Chas Freeman served as U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia during Desert Shield and Desert Storm; designed NATO’s transformation into a Europe- wide security system; and helped negotiate deals removing Cuban troops fromAngola and ending South African rule of Namibia. He was principal American interpreter during Richard Nixon’s 1972 visit to Beijing. Amb. Freeman retired in 1994 after serving as assis- tant secretary of defense for international security affairs. To the Secretary: Leaked Embassy Cables and America’s Foreign Policy Disconnect Mary Thompson-Jones, W.W. Norton & Company, 2016, $27.95/paperback,384 pages. All readers interested in diplomacy and what Foreign Service officers actually do all day will benefit from sitting down with this fast-paced book based on the State Department cables seized by hackers and published by WikiLeaks in November 2010. Mary Thompson-Jones uses the cables to highlight the obvious, as well as the more subtle, problems that diplomats face each day and the skills they employ to solve them. Most Americans will never see a diplomatic cable, and the author has chosen revealing ones depicting the realities of embassy life, diplomacy in conflict zones and attempts to resolve conflicting interests in America’s highly politicized foreign policy. The book is at its best when examining the wide gap between what these cables report and what Washington-based policymakers do with them. According to Alan K. Henrikson of Tufts University’s Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, “Whatever the embarrassment [the WikiLeaks cables] caused, they demonstrate why American foreign policy should be, but too often is not, shaped by the perspectives, knowledge and perceptions of experienced diplomats in the field.” (See p. 70 for retired FSO Damian Leader’s review.) A retired FSO, Mary Thompson-Jones is director of the global studies and international relations program at North- eastern University. She lives in Boston. Everyday Life in the MuslimMiddle East Donna Lee Bowen, Evelyn Early and Becky Schulthies, eds., Indiana University Press, 2014, $30/paperback, 504 pages. At a time when the Middle East seems a region exclusively characterized by violent conflict and intense politics, Everyday Life in the MuslimMiddle East depicts daily life for the average citizen in various countries. A collection of essays by expert researchers that have been curated by three editors with subject expertise as well as firsthand experience of everyday processes in the region, the book takes readers behind the newspaper headlines to grasp the realities of life in the mod- ern Middle East. This third and substantially updated edition is distinct in its analysis of more recent developments, such as the influence of social media on the everyday lives of Middle Eastern citizens and the changing status of gay rights. The book is divided into sections, such as “Generations and Life Passages,” “Gender Rela- tions” and “Islam in Practice,” each containing several topical essays. “What makes this book special is that so many of its contribu- tors really are able to get inside what is going on in the Muslim Middle East, the so-called Arab ‘street,’” says retired FSO Stephen W. Buck in his review of the book (see the March FSJ ). Donna Lee Bowen is a professor of political science and Near Eastern studies at Brigham Young University. Evelyn Early is a former Senior Foreign Service officer and now works as an anthropologist and consultant. Becky Schulthies is an assistant professor of anthropology at Rutgers University. Introduction to International Disaster Management Damon P. Coppola, Elsevier Publishing Company, 2015, $99.95/paperback, 734 pages. The third edition of Damon Coppola’s comprehensive guide to global emer- gency management and humanitarian affairs, Introduction to International Disaster Management is an important academic resource for understanding disaster mitigation and the international policy involved. This textbook provides useful study tools such as chapter summaries, key terms and easy-to-understand charts. The topics of chapters include the history of emergency management, the definition