The Foreign Service Journal, November 2022

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | NOVEMBER 2022 49 The Four Ages of American Foreign Policy: Weak Power, Great Power, Superpower, Hyperpower Michael Mandelbaum, Oxford University Press, 2022, $34.95/hardcover, e-book available, 624 pages. Michael Mandelbaum offers a sweep- ing look at American history and inter- national influence in The Four Ages of American Foreign Policy . He divides American foreign policy into four distinct periods, each with its own inflection points: a weak power (1765-1865), a great power (1865-1945), a superpower (1945-1990), and the world’s sole hyperpower (1990-2015). The book highlights continuity and change across these eras, includ- ing steadily growing U.S. power relative to other states and its norms. As retired FSO Joseph Novak states in his October 2022 FSJ review, “Foreign affairs professionals would be wise to use it as an essential reference.” Michael Mandelbaum is the Christian A. Herter Professor Emeritus of American Foreign Policy at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. He is the author of 16 books, including The Rise and Fall of Peace on Earth (2019), Mission Failure (2016), and That Used to Be Us (2011). Collapse: The Fall of the Soviet Union Vladislav M. Zubok, Yale University Press, 2022, $25/paperback, e-book available, 560 pages. The collapse of the Soviet Union was a seismic historical event. Festering for decades, the forces that brought about this superpower’s dissolution came together during 1990-1991. In Collapse : The Fall of the Soviet Union , professor Vladislav Zubok offers a reinterpretation of the decisive moments of this process. Refuting the notion that the collapse was inevi- table, he asserts that reformist Mikhail Gorbachev’s particular leadership and agenda were the true culprits. It was Gorbachev’s efforts, he argues, that led to a state deprived of governmental resources and rising separatism, factors that set the stage for the new Russian Federation in the tumultuous 1990s. Vladislav M. Zubok is professor of international history at the London School of Economics and Political Science. His most recent books are The Idea of Russia: The Life and Work of Dmitry Likhachev (2017) and Dmitry Likhachev: The Life and the Century (in Russian, 2016). Time and Chance: A Story of a Nairobi Bomb Blast Survivor Charles Ndibui, independently published, 2021, $15/paperback, e-book available, 139 pages. For 41 years, Charles Ndibui worked as an accountant at the U.S. embassy in Kenya. With wit, humor, and wisdom, he conveys the story of his life and professional career, including miracu- lously surviving the 1998 embassy bombing, in Time and Chance . Through perseverance and good fortune, Ndibui went from humble beginnings to a successful career in public service. “If there is nothing else you have taken frommy story, please take this,” he implores his readers. “Always believe in yourself, and never stop dreaming irrespective of your background. If I, Charles Ndibui, a simple boy from a simple village, managed to make something of myself, you can too. All by the grace of God.” Charles Ndibui served as a Foreign Service National at U.S. Embassy Nairobi from 1975 to 2016. Reign of Terror: How the 9/11 Era Destabilized America and Produced Trump Spencer Ackerman, Viking, 2022, $18/paperback, e-book available, 448 pages. The 9/11 attacks changed America in ways overt and unforeseen. As the U.S. went to war abroad, national security surveillance, heated rhetoric, and elements of xenophobia shaped the domestic front. In Reign of Terror , journalist Spencer Acker- man examines how national security policy may affect civic life. Following the 9/11 attacks, notions of nativism gained greater hold in parts of the country. This, he argues, paved the way for politicians to capitalize on divisive beliefs for political gain, and these factors laid the foundation for Donald Trump to rise to the presidency. Spencer Ackerman has been a national security correspondent for publications such as The New Republic , WIRED , The Guardian ,