The Foreign Service Journal, November 2020

The World: A Brief Introduction Richard Haass, Penguin Press, 2020, $28/hardcover, e-book available, 400 pages. “This is the book that explains how the world really works, how it is changing, and why it matters,” says former Secre- tary of State Madeleine Albright. Aiming to raise foreign policy literacy broadly, the author presents an “essential history” from 1618 to the present, then tours the regions of the world. Next, he discusses issues of the “global era” such as migration, cybersecurity, currency and monetary policy. Finally, he considers elements of the world order such as alliances, war between countries, sovereignty and self- determination. Richard Haass is president of the Council on Foreign Relations. He served as the senior Middle East adviser to President George H.W. Bush, as director of the State Department Policy Planning Staff (2001-2003), and as U.S. envoy to both the Cyprus and Northern Ireland peace talks. He is the author of many other books, including A World in Disarray (2018). Service to the World John T. Haralson, Xlibris, 2019, $19.99/ paperback, e-book available, 160 pages. Formalized training in crisis manage- ment was still in its infancy when Lt. Col. John Haralson began working for the State Department in 1986 as program manager for the Crisis Management Training Program. The new training programHaralson helped launch was met with mixed feelings: “We are diplomats, we do diplomacy, we don’t do security,” some said. Haralson would go on to facili- tate numerous exercises that helped diplomats at post better prepare for the worst. In this memoir, a volume in the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training’s Oral History Bound Book Program, Haralson describes his nearly 50 years on the front lines of American crises and conflicts. Before joining State, he had served for 28 years in the U.S. Army, with combat tours in Laos and Vietnam with Special Forces (Green Berets). He led State’s Crisis Management Training Program and taught at the Foreign Service Institute until 2007. That organizing principle makes Guardians of the Grail a truly distinctive book. His first posting, as a U.S. Information Agency public diplomacy officer, was in Madras, where he learned how to navigate India’s famously moribund bureaucracy. After tours in Amman and Khartoum, he became the first public affairs officer in Asmara. While there, he helped reopen U.S. Embassy Kigali in Rwanda following that nation’s 1994 genocide. Perhaps the most memorable story Datta tells comes from his time as chargé d’affaires in Monrovia in 2003, when he organized the evacuation of 150 Americans using French military helicopters out of Côte d’Ivoire. He also was instructed to see Liberian President Charles Taylor to tell him that the George W. Bush administration wanted him to leave the country. Now a full-time writer, Christopher Datta has published three novels, Touched with Fire (2013), The Demon Stone (2014) and Fire and Dust (2014). He has also written a movie script and is finishing a detective novel and another movie script, both due out later this year. Four Continents and Three Islands John Cushing, Xlibris, 2019, $19.99/paperback, e-book available, 124 pages. John Cushing’s career in the Foreign Service took him across a broad expanse of nations and regions. Prior to join- ing the Service, he served in the Peace Corps and spent years as a teacher of English in Japan, Iran and Tacoma, Washington. Four Continents andThree Islands, a volume in the ADST Oral History Bound Book series, is the story of his far-rang- ing international career. Joining the Foreign Service relatively late in life—at the age of 43, with a family and a fair amount of work experience behind him—gave Cushing some added perspective that served himwell in his diplomatic career. Whether adjudicating visa applications in Santo Domingo or fielding calls from outraged Korean officials, Cushing had more than enough opportunity to exercise diplomatic tradecraft to navigate sensitive situations and safeguard American interests. John Cushing served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Korea. He joined the Foreign Service in 1988 and served on four continents and three islands before retiring. He now lives in Continued from p. 42 48 NOVEMBER 2020 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL