The Foreign Service Journal, November 2020

34 NOVEMBER 2020 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL From Hope to Horror , a volume in the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training’s “Diplomats and Diplomacy” series, is her insider’s account of Rwanda’s efforts to move toward democracy and peace in the early 1990s. She analyzes the difficulties of engaging in diplomacy in countries enmired in internal armed conflict. Hoping to foster a peaceful transition, the United States sponsored negotiations to try to reach an accord. U.S. officials developed what she calls “a revolutionary blueprint” for political and military power-sharing, but it was rejected by the factions and a downward spiral into mass atrocities followed. Drawing on her experience, Leader discusses ways in which diplomacy can more effectively prevent violence by identifying the unintended consequences of policies and emphasizing conflict prevention over crisis response. Joyce E. Leader is a retired U.S. Foreign Service officer who served as the deputy chief of mission in Rwanda and as a U.S. observer to the Rwandan peace talks in Arusha, Tanzania, and as U.S. ambassador to the Republic of Guinea (1999-2000). The Final Report: A History of the Portuguese American Citizenship Project 1999–2016 James Martin McGlinchey, Opus Self-Publishing, 2020, $35/paperback, e-book available, 378 pages. Portuguese immigrants have been coming to the United States for more than two centuries, but the history of the Portuguese American commu- nity, and particularly its civic engagement, has not been closely studied. The Portuguese American Citizenship Project, begun in 1999, aimed to remedy that. Over 16 years, the project engaged with various community organizations across the United States and filed more than 50 reports on its progress; this book, as its name implies, is the final one. The Citizenship Project measured the political strength of Portuguese American communities, carried out a campaign to encourage voter registration and facilitated public meetings between candidates for elected office and Portuguese American communities. In a series of case studies, it then assessed whether these efforts affected political outcomes. James Martin McGlinchey is a retired Foreign Service officer who served in Poland, Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia and Portugal. His last overseas posting was as counselor for economic affairs in Lisbon. He was coordinator of the Portuguese American Citizenship Project from 1999 to 2009 and served on the project’s board of directors until it closed in 2016. His maternal grandparents immigrated to the United States from the Azores at the turn of the 20th century. Mr. McGlinchey and his wife, Andrea, also a retired FSO, reside in McLean, Virginia. US Policy Toward Africa: Eight Decades of Realpolitik Herman J. Cohen, Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2019, $35/paperback, 280 pages. US Policy Toward Africa is a criti- cal history of each U.S. president’s policies toward Africa since 1941. Its author, Ambassador Herman J. Cohen (universally known as “Hank”), needs no introduction for most Foreign Service Journal readers. As someone who spent virtually his entire 38-year Foreign Service career either serving in Africa or helping to direct our relations with the continent, Amb. Cohen is an Africa hand par excellence. Neither an academic study nor a memoir, the book reflects both the author’s command of the documentary record and his decades of on-the-ground experience. Starting in 1941 as Franklin Delano Roosevelt begins his third term, each chapter assesses a U.S. president’s record in dealing with Africa. Cohen places each administration’s record in the larger context of the continent’s struggle for independence from European powers; American efforts to cultivate relationships with the new nations against the backdrop of the Cold War; and the post-9/11 era. Reviewing the book in the September FSJ , Steven Alan Honley called it “a valuable addition to the literature, with much to offer both seasoned Africa hands and general readers.” The book is a volume in the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training’s Diplomats and Diplomacy series. Herman J. Cohen joined the Foreign Service in 1955 and retired with the rank of Career Ambassador in 1993, after serving as assistant secretary of State for African affairs for four years. He received AFSA’s Award for Lifetime Contributions to American Diplomacy in 2019. He is president and chief executive officer of Cohen and Woods International.