The Foreign Service Journal, November 2022

46 NOVEMBER 2022 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL OFRELATED INTEREST Not One Inch: America, Russia, and the Making of Post-Cold War Stalemate M.E. Sarotte, Yale University Press, $25/paperback, e-book available, 568 pages. The period immediately following the end of the Cold War and preced- ing the presidency of Vladimir Putin was critical for NATO-Russia relations. Drawing on numerous memos, letters, briefs, and once-secret documents, Mary Elise Sarotte examines the behind-the-scenes diplomacy of 1990s-era NATO expansion. She carefully documents the decision-making and rationales that drove this sensitive and controversial policy. As war currently rages between Russia and Ukraine, Not One Inch provides critical context in understanding the modern origins of Russian insecurity and its wary perceptions of a growing NATO alliance. Mary Elise Sarotte is the inaugural holder of the Marie-Josée and Henry R. Kravis Distinguished Professorship of Historical Studies at Johns Hopkins University. She is the author or editor of six books, including 1989: The Struggle to Create Post–Cold War Europe (2014) and The Collapse: The Accidental Opening of the Berlin Wall (2014), both of which were selected as Books of the Year by The Financial Times . The Ambassadors: Thinking about Diplomacy from Machiavelli to Modern Times Robert Cooper, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2021, $22.99/paperback, e-book available, 576 pages. In The Ambassadors , Robert Cooper ambitiously traces more than 500 years of diplomacy through the lens of its most famous (or infamous) practition- ers, including Niccolò Machiavelli, Charles Maurice de Talleyrand, Konrad Adenauer, Jean Monnet, Dean Acheson, George Kennan, and Henry Kissinger. Using a present-tense narrative style, Cooper vividly recounts the actions of these leaders, bringing readers into the past. Given the professional diplomat’s penchant for declining to trumpet accomplishments, many fall through the cracks of history only to be remembered as faint background actors. In this book lesser-known names become decisive figures as Cooper illuminates their consequential roles. While examining the diplomacy and leaders of various eras, he also weaves in valuable lessons on diplomatic tradecraft and statesmanship that have proven timeless. Sir Robert Francis Cooper served in the British diplomatic service for more than 30 years and in the European Union. He is a member of the European Council on Foreign Relations. Cold War Radio: The Russian Broadcasts of the Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Mark G. Pomar, Potomac Books, 2022, $34.95/hardcover, e-book available, 344 pages. The Voice of America (VOA) and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) were an integral part of U.S. strategy for competing in the ColdWar. Mark Pomar incisively examines these institutions and their Russian broadcast- ing to assess their impact on East-West relations, fromNATO– Warsaw Pact competition to the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Ambassador Eric Rubin writes in his September 2022 FSJ review that the author’s “stellar career in the Soviet and post- Soviet world makes him an ideal teller of this compelling story.” Pomar moves beyond this role, however, and also offers lessons for managing the informational dimensions of competition that have only grown in importance since the Cold War. Mark G. Pomar is a former assistant director of the Russian Service at RFE/RL, director of the USSR division at VOA, and executive director of the Board for International Broadcasting. He was the founding CEO and president of the U.S.-Russia Foundation in Moscow. The Development Diplomat: Working Across Borders, Boardrooms, and Bureaucracies to End Poverty Fatema Z. Sumar, New Degree Press, 2021, $19.99/paperback, e-book available, 384 pages. First-generation Muslim American Fatema Z. Sumar has served the U.S. government as a diplomat, politi- cal aide, and development expert.