The Foreign Service Journal, November 2016

34 NOVEMBER 2016 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL So You Want to Live Another 1,000 Years: An Open Letter to Mankind John Richard Campbell, Blurb.com, 2015, $4.79/paperback, 52 pages. A witty explanation of the environmental destruction humans have caused in mod- ern times, So You Want to Live Another 1,000 Years explores the scientific implica- tions of manmade pollution. Campbell offers a cause-and-effect argument for reducing our ecological footprint worldwide, lest the destruction of the planet pass the point of no return. He presents harrowing facts on recent climate change and the likely impact, followed by methods to reduce pollution and the policy implications involved in the process. This “Open Letter” is a formidable warning, but includes recom- mendations that offer hope. John Campbell is a former Foreign Service officer who served overseas in Vietnam, including three years in psycho- logical operations, among other postings during his 14-year diplomatic career. Prior to joining the FS, he was a bombardier in World War II and served as an education adviser in the U.S. Air Force. Later he became a university instructor and admin- istrator. He also served as a tour director in Western Europe for 25 years. Travels Into the Heart of Egypt Lillian Craig Harris, New Academia Publishing, 2016, $32/paperback, 334 pages. The 57 short essays that make up this book, a volume in the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training’s “Memoirs and Occasional Papers” series, set the scene for understanding the dif- ficulties now faced by Egypt. Written between 1990 and 1995— when the author, a former member of the U.S. Foreign Service, and her husband, Alan Goulty, a British diplomat, lived in Cairo and traveled widely in the country—the essays explore Egypt’s capital and its cities, deserts, communities, monasteries and general circumstances at a time when the kind of disquiet that culminated 20 years later in the so-called Arab Spring was already widespread. No academic treatise or footnoted work of history, the collec- tion is based on Harris’ observations of the tumultuous land- scape in Egypt: its political malaise and extremism, economic fragility and the wealth gap, and threats to the environment and to the country’s rich cultural heritage, as well as perennial social issues such as the Muslim-Christian divide, women’s rights, population pressure and leprosy. A Foreign Service officer from 1976 to 1986, Lillian Craig Harris is the author of nine books and has taught at George- town University, the American University in Cairo, Haigazian College in Beirut and Wheaton College. She was awarded the Cross of St. Augustine in 2002, received an honorary doctor- ate from Ahfad University for Women in Omdurman, Sudan, in 2006 and was appointed an Officer of the British Empire in 2007 for charitable work in Egypt and Sudan. MEMOIRS The Dust of Kandahar: A Diplomat Among Warriors in Afghanistan Jonathan S. Addleton, Naval Institute Press, 2016, $32.95/paperback, 272 pages. After serving as senior civilian representa- tive to southern Afghanistan in wartorn Kandahar from 2012 to 2014, Jonathan Addleton was forever changed by both the intense violence and rich cultural interaction he experi- enced there. In The Dust of Kandahar he recounts and reflects on this experience. A continuation of his article by the same name published in the October 2015 issue of The Foreign Ser vice Journal , this moving account—which includes his experience of surviving a Taliban bomb that killed two of his Foreign Service colleagues—is a courageous testament to the work of the men and women of the Foreign Service. Addleton tells about his life in Afghanistan, attending the Purple Heart ceremonies for soldiers, conversing with Afghan citizens and living behind barbed wire fences. Even after return- ing home, Addleton says, he never quite left Afghanistan behind, and his memoir explains why. An emotionally stirring and dra- matic read, this memoir will put into perspective the work of the Foreign Service on the ground in dangerous environments. FSO Jonathan Addleton is USAID mission director in India. He was USAID mission director in Mongolia from 2001 to 2004 and served as U.S. ambassador to Mongolia from 2009 to 2012. He is the author of Mongolia and the United States: A Diplo- matic History (2013). He is the 2014 recipient of AFSA’s Christian A. Herter Award for Constructive Dissent by a Senior Foreign Service Officer.