The Foreign Service Journal, November 2021

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | NOVEMBER 2021 39 The Return of Mussolini: The Rise of Modern Day Tyranny Emilio Iodice, independently published, 2021, $18/paperback, e-book available, 206 pages. Precisely a century after fascist Benito Mussolini was first elected to the Ital- ian parliament, presaging the ascent of Adolf Hitler just a few years later, Emilio Iodice declares that grim history appears to be repeating itself today in countries around the world. He singles out the Chinese Commu- nist Party as the chief threat to global democracy and urges the West to do all it can to counter Beijing’s malign influence across the globe. To make his case, Iodice painstakingly traces Mussolini’s rise to power in the 1920s, then draws direct parallels to our world: “Nationalist influences are rising. Once again, the forces of communication are spreading the words and ideas of totalitarianism. Instead of speeches on balconies, we now have social media, which actively circulate and intensify rumors and falsehoods.” Emilio Iodice, a retired Foreign Service officer, is vice president at Loyola University in Chicago and director of the school’s John Felice Rome Center. As an FSO, he served in France, Brazil, Mexico and Spain. He is the author of seven previous books, including Profiles in Leadership: From Caesar to Modern Times (2013), When Courage Was the Essence of Leadership: Lessons from History (2019) and The Commander in Chief: The Qualities Needed of Leaders of Freedom-Loving Nations in the 21st Century (2020). Visit http://www.iodicebooks.com/ for more information. The Risk-Takers: American Leaders in Desperate Times Joel Schlesinger, Newman Springs Publishing, 2020, $18.95/paperback, e-book available, 186 pages. The five essays in this book assess the organizational leadership skills that Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, Robert E. Lee, Katharine Graham and Franklin D. Roosevelt each exhibited at pivotal moments in American history. Joel Schlesinger approaches leadership as an interactive process in which leaders and followers work together in difficult situations or complex environments to accomplish common goals. As he sums it up in his introduction, “One way to define leaders may be to say that we may never understand exactly why followers follow leaders, but in the end, leaders resonate ; they find a way, in whatever circumstance, to connect with followers and leverage their contributions.” (italics in the original) These essays suggest that there is a holistic unity to leadership, and that the four attributes of status, esteem, technical competence and organizational leadership skills— always present in some measure—help leaders connect with followers. Of course, the proper mix of these four qualities depends on the nature of the followers and the demands of the crisis. Joel Schlesinger is a retired Senior Foreign Service officer with the U.S. Agency for International Development. During his tour as USAIDmission director in Mali, Vice President Al Gore recognized the mission for the most innovative strategic planning and managerial reengineering anywhere in the agency. Schlesinger later served as deputy assistant administrator for legislative and public affairs. He holds a doctorate in organizational leadership and is currently a full professor at the Jack Welch Management Institute on Leadership. Master Negotiator: The Role of James A. Baker, III at the End of the Cold War Diana Villiers Negroponte, Archway, 2020, $20.99/paperback, e-book available, 418 pages. Diana Villiers Negroponte zeroes in on the 61st Secretary of State’s diplomacy in this book, aptly titled Master Nego- tiator: The Role of James A. Baker, III at the End of the Cold War. Although The Man Who Ran Washington by Peter Baker and Susan Glasser (see the June FSJ review) devotes several chapters to James A. Baker III’s three years as Secretary of State (1989- 1992), the authors’ goal of surveying Baker’s entire, sprawling career keeps them from doing full justice to his diplomatic achievements—and that is what Negroponte accomplishes here. Reviewing Master Negotiator in this edition (see p. 102), Joseph L. Novak says it “returns repeatedly to the point that Baker’s close relationship with George H.W. Bush, the 41st president who died in 2018, served as the bedrock of his empowerment as Secretary of State.” Further, in explaining Baker’s effectiveness as America’s top diplomat, says Novak,