34 NOVEMBER 2024 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL Getting Russia Right Thomas Graham, Polity Books, 2023, $29.95/hardcover, e-book available, 272 pages. Russia expert and former Foreign Service O cer omas Graham traces the evolution of U.S.-Russian relations from the beginning of the post-Soviet era until today, closely examining the mistakes made by successive U.S. administrations that led to the current hostile relationship between the two nations. Graham suggests policy shifts that would bring about improved relations in a postPutin world, allowing the U.S. to better advance its own interests. As an FSO from 1984 to 1998, omas Graham served two tours in Moscow. Between those postings, he worked on Russian and Soviet a airs on the State Department’s policy planning sta (S/P) and in the o ce of the under secretary of Defense for policy. He was director for Russian a airs for the National Security Council (NSC) from 2002 to 2004 and special assistant to the president and senior director for Russia on the NSC sta from 2004 to 2007. He is currently a distinguished fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and a lecturer on global a airs and political science at Yale University, where he co-founded the Russian Studies Project. He holds a BA in Russian studies from Yale and both an MA in history and a PhD in political science from Harvard. From Vision to Action: Remaking the World Through Social Entrepreneurship John Marks, Columbia University Press, 2024, $28.00/paperback, e-book available, 208 pages. Author John Marks explains how he and his wife, Susan Collin Marks, used the methodology of social entrepreneurship to build the world’s largest peacebuilding nongovernmental organization with a sta of 600 and o ces in 35 countries. In describing 11 basic principles of social entrepreneurship, he shows how these principles were employed to prevent violence in the Middle East, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. John Marks joined the Foreign Service in 1966. He served in Vietnam and Washington, D.C., until 1970, when he resigned in protest over U.S. policy in Southeast Asia. He is the founder of Search for Common Ground, a peacebuilding NGO. Assessing Russia’s Actions in Ukraine and Syria, 2014–2022 John A. Pennell, Rowman & Littlefield, 2024, $130.00/hardcover, e-book available, 370 pages. What do Russia’s actions in Ukraine and Syria, particularly between 2014 and 2022, tell us about the character of modern con ict? USAID Foreign Service O cer John Pennell posits that Russia’s actions in Syria and Ukraine reveal more continuity than change and more evolution than revolution in warfare. He argues that new-generation warfare, political warfare, or full-spectrum con ict better describe Russia’s activities than hybrid warfare. John Pennell joined USAID in 2001 and is currently the USAID/Caucasus regional mission director in Tbilisi, Georgia. He has also served in Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Tunisia, Afghanistan, El Salvador, Indonesia, and Iraq. He has a PhD in war and defense studies from King’s College London. The Last Human Job: The Work of Connecting in a Disconnected World Allison Pugh, Princeton University Press, 2024, $29.95/hardcover, e-book available, 384 pages. With the rapid development of arti- cial intelligence and labor-saving technologies like self-checkouts and automated factories, the future of work has never been more uncertain, and even jobs requiring high levels of human interaction are no longer safe. e Last Human Job explores the human connections that underlie our work, arguing that what people do for each other in these settings is valuable and worth preserving. Drawing on in-depth interviews and observations with people in a broad range of professions—from physicians, teachers, and coaches to chaplains, therapists, caregivers, and hairdressers—Allison Pugh develops the concept of “connective labor,” a kind of work that relies on empathy, the spontaneity of human contact, and a mutual recognition of each other’s humanity.
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