The Foreign Service Journal, November 2020

Sue M. Cobb served as U.S. ambassador to Jamaica (2001- 2005) and is currently a principal of Cobb Partners LLC and president of the Cobb Family Foundation. She is a trustee of the Center for Strategic and International Studies and the Council of American Ambassadors. Lost and Found in Spain: Tales of an Ambassador’s Wife Susan Lewis Solomont, Disruption Books, 2019, $16.99/paperback, e-book available, 234 pages. When President Barack Obama appointed her husband, Alan D. Solomont, as ambas- sador to Spain and Andorra in 2010, Susan Lewis Solomont left her career, friends and family, and a life she loved to join her husband for more than three years in Madrid. In this memoir, Solomont recounts how she learned the rules of a diplomatic household; went on a culinary adventure with some of Spain’s greatest chefs; found her place in Madrid’s Jewish community; and discovered her own voice. Susan Lewis Solomont has more than 30 years of experience providing strategic philanthropic counsel to private foundations. The Spanish Federation of Female Directors, Executives, Professionals and Entrepreneurs named her International Woman of the Year in 2013. The FBI Abroad: Bridging the Gap Between Domestic and Foreign Intelligence Darren E. Tromblay, Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2020, $89.95/hardcover, e-book available, 277 pages. The Federal Bureau of Investigation is a domestic intelligence agency, yet it has been operating beyond U.S. borders for years. Why and under what authori- ties does it do this? How does its activity contribute to U.S. diplomacy and national security? What role does it play in other countries? These are some of the questions the author addresses in this absorbing book about the history of the bureau’s overseas operations. Darren E. Tromblay has served as an intelligence analyst with the U.S. government since 2005. He is the author of several books on intelligence analysis and operations, most recently Political Influence Operations: How Foreign Actors Seek to Shape U.S. Policy-Making (2018) and Spying: Assessing U.S. Domestic Intelligence Since 9/11 (2019). The Man Who Ran Washington: The Life and Times of James A. Baker III Peter Baker and Susan Glasser, Doubleday, 2020, $47/hardcover, e-book available, 720 pages. James Baker III served in senior posi- tions under three U.S. presidents. With a long record of distinguished public service, he became known as a man who could get things done in Washington. As the 61st Secretary of State (1989-1992), Baker was a key participant in ending the Cold War. Earlier he served as chief of staff to President Ronald Reagan, and then as Reagan’s Treasury Secretary and chairman of the National Economic Policy Council (1985-1988). This book offers a close look at one of the most important figures in recent American history and his times. Susan Glasser was editor in chief of Foreign Policy magazine and is a staff writer for The New Yorker . Peter Baker, her husband, is the chief White House correspondent for The New York Times. Mission: Career Transition— A Career Change Guide for Intelligence, Military, Foreign Affairs, National Security, and Other Government Professionals Alison Pentz Bouwmeester, APB Books, 2020, $18.99/paperback, e-book available, 248 pages. For Foreign Service and Civil Service employees, planning for retirement after many years of service can be daunting. This book is an invaluable guide to the process. Especially use- ful, says Associate Professor of Psychiatry Dr. Kenneth Dekleva, a retired member of the Foreign Service, in his review for the FSJ (October), are the interviews and direct quotes sprinkled through the narrative from a group of accomplished State Department, intelligence community, military and national security professionals who have been through the experience. Alison P. Bouwmeester served for 28 years as a senior leader in the Central Intelligence Agency’s Directorate of Operations. After retiring, she spent nearly a decade as a senior business executive in the defense contracting industry. In 2018, she became a certified THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | NOVEMBER 2020 45