The Foreign Service Journal, November 2020

40 NOVEMBER 2020 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL Why Nation-Building Matters: Political Consolidation, Building Security Forces, and Economic Development in Failed and Fragile States Keith W. Mines, Potomac Books, 2020, $40/paperback, e-book available, 402 pages. Nation-building is among the most controversial subjects in American foreign policy. Should the U.S. embark on nation-building projects? How do these projects contribute to national security? And if the U.S. does decide to contribute to such projects, how should it design its efforts and define the scope of its involvement? Keith Mines examines nation-building and its value as an investment for American foreign policy through the lens of his extensive on-the-ground experience—as a Special Forces officer, United Nations official and Foreign Service officer. Across these roles, Mines saw how ungoverned spaces can radiate instability, and how an effective blend of hard and soft power is necessary to produce lasting success. Defining core lines of effort such as security force assistance, economic development and political consolidation will help form a framework for devising stable solutions for unstable locales, he argues. From Darfur to Iraq, Afghanistan and other hot spots, Mines vividly recounts firsthand experiences with both successes and failures. Drawing on these accounts, he identifies lessons learned, outlines strategies that may be more successful for future endeavors and highlights why nation-building campaigns can be valuable investments for preserving national security. Keith W. Mines retired recently from the Foreign Service and is now director for Latin America at the U.S. Institute of Peace. He has published numerous articles in The Foreign Service Journal , Parameters, Orbis, the Baltimore Sun and Denver Post , and has also written for the Foreign Policy Research Institute and the U.S. Institute of Peace. Cacao Source: An Emerging Sustainable Chocolate Landscape Alain d’Aboville, in collaboration with Cherrie Lo, independently published, 2019, $23.95/paperback, e-book available, 138 pages. “There may well not be a choco- late industry in fifty years,” Alain d’Aboville and Cherrie Lo warn in the foreword to Cacao Source: An Emerg- ing Sustainable Chocolate Landscape , an examination of the state of the chocolate industry. The $83 billion industry run by some two dozen multinational cor- porations is in flux, we learn, troubled by a combination of new market dynamics and environmental and technological challenges. The authors take a comprehensive look at cacao farming and chocolate making, from its history to significant players and recent developments. As global demand for chocolate soars, corporate consolidation has grown along with pressures on the approximately five million tropical farmers, mostly in West Africa, who produce some four and a half million tons of cacao beans annually at increasingly exploitative rates of pay. The proliferation of artificial substances, the uncertain effects of global warming and a movement to turn chocolate making into a cottage industry add to the testy mix. The book profiles six chocolate entrepreneurs on the basis of a set of questions addressing their approach to the industry, and concludes with a chapter on what the chocolate industry may require to be sustainable by 2050. Alain d’Aboville, the spouse of USAID Foreign Service Officer Karen d’Aboville, became a consular adjudicator in 2012. His overseas postings include Kabul, Baghdad, Santo Domingo and Nairobi. He started his chocolate journey while in Nairobi by traveling to cacao-growing countries like Madagascar (where he spent the first five years of his life) and Tanzania.