The Foreign Service Journal, November 2016

Shaper Nations: Strategies for a Changing World William I. Hitchcock, Melvyn P. Leffler and Jeffrey W. Legro, Harvard University Press, 2016, $35/hardcover, 216 pages. This collection of essays focuses on eight “shaper” nations that have decisive influ- ence within their own regional spheres and will likely determine the future course of global affairs: Brazil, China, Germany, India, Israel, Russia, Turkey and the United States. The aim is to identify the sources of national strategy for each nation and evaluate the impact the pursuit of that strategy is having on contemporary world politics. The result is a fresh, new perspective on 21st-century security threats and the kind of strategic thinking needed to effectively meet today’s challenges. William I. Hitchcock is a professor of history at the Univer- sity of Virginia, where Melvyn P. Leffler is the Edward Stettinius professor of history. Jeffrey W. Legro is Ambassador Henry J. Taylor and Mrs. Marion R. Taylor Professor of Politics and vice provost for global affairs at the University of Virginia. Minding the Gap: African Conflict Management in a Time of Change Pamela Aall and Chester A. Crocker, CIGI Press, 2016, $38/paperback, $15.38/Kindle, 342 pages. A compilation of essays by more than 20 experts, Minding the Gap: African Con- flict Management in a Time of Change puts conflict management in Africa into perspective, examin- ing both the problems involved and the continent’s evolving capacity to undertake the task effectively. Heavily supported by hard data, this book is a significant contribution in this criti- cal area. (See retired Ambassador Tibor Nagy’s review in the October FSJ .) Chester Crocker, who served as assistant secretary of State for African affairs from 1981 to 1989, is a distinguished fellow with the Centre for International Governance Innovation’s Global Security and Politics Program and James R. Schlesinger professor of strategic studies at Georgetown University’s Walsh School of Foreign Service. Pamela Aall is a senior fellow with CIGI’s Global Security and Politics Program and founding provost of the U.S. Institute of Peace’s Academy for International Conflict Manage- ment and Peacebuilding. 40 NOVEMBER 2016 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL OF RELATED INTEREST Slippery Slope: Europe's Troubled Future Giles Merritt, Oxford University Press, 2016, $29.95/hardcover, 270 pages. A self-described “skeptical Europhile,” Giles Merritt lays bare the issues surround- ing what he argues is Europe’s imminent decline and the best courses of action to slow or reduce it. He offers a clear to-do list for European countries, including a recommendation for stron- ger unification of national governments across Europe. He also discusses the rise of Asia as a formidable competitor and delves into the strengths and weaknesses of the European Union. This is a timely read for anyone concerned about Europe’s options in a post-Brexit world. Giles Merritt served as a Financial Times correspondent for 15 years before founding Friends of Europe, a think-tank in Brussels, and Europe’s World , a policy journal. He is the author of several books, including the award-winning World Out of Work (1982). City Squares: 18 Writers on the Spirit and Significance of Squares Around the World Catie Marron, Harper-Collins, 2016, $32.50/hardcover, 304 pages. City squares have been sites for commerce, celebrations, public protest and peaceful gatherings since the time of the ancient Greeks. The square is the one essential public space that has “stood the test of time,” editor Catie Marron writes in the intro- duction to this unusual book. Essays by noted contributors— New Yorker editor David Rem- nick, former Time magazine editor and Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Richard Stengel, novelist Anne Beattie and others—about prominent and some not-so- famous city squares on four continents are organized in three sections that look at these metropolitan gathering places from cultural, geopolitical and historical perspectives. Catie Marron is chairman of the board of directors of Friends of the High Line and a trustee of the New York Public Library, where she was chairman of the board for seven years. She is a contributing editor to Vogue and the editor of City Parks: Public Places, Private Thoughts (2013).