THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | NOVEMBER 2024 41 Kaplan reminds readers that “the tragedy of the Greater Middle East ever since the collapse of the Ottoman Empire has as much to do with the West’s dynamic interaction with it as with the region itself.” He views the region as “the puzzle piece that China needs to command … to link its budding commercial outposts in Europe with those in East Asia.” Robert D. Kaplan is the bestselling author of 22 books on foreign a airs and travel, which have been translated into numerous languages. He holds the Robert Strausz-Hupé Chair in Geopolitics at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, and Foreign Policy has twice named him one of the world’s Top 100 Global inkers. How Russia Loses: Hubris and Miscalculation in Putin’s Kremlin Thomas Kent, The Jamestown Foundation, 2023, $38.50/ paperback, e-book available, 379 pages. As Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine drags on, already more than halfway through a third year with no end in sight, there is no denying that he has in icted major damage. But he also has not achieved any of his strategic objectives there—just one of many episodes omas Kent cites to support his thesis that, contrary to his fearsome reputation, Putin is far from a master of statecraft. Reviewing the book for the Journal of Policy & Security, Michaela Dodge says: “Kent draws on his decades of experience ... and deep knowledge of Russia. Expert interviews provide additional nuance and depth to a complicated subject. Together, these elements make for a riveting read.” omas Kent, a senior fellow at the Jamestown Foundation, lectures on disinformation and Russian a airs at Columbia University’s Harriman Institute. Previously, he served as Moscow bureau chief, international editor, and ethics editor for the Associated Press. The National Security Constitution in the 21st Century Harold Hongju Koh, Yale University Press, 2024, $40.00/hardcover, e-book available, 496 pages. In 1988 the Yale Law Journal published Harold Koh’s “Why the President (Almost) Always Wins in Foreign A airs.” Two years later, Yale University Press published a book-length version of that article, e National Security Constitution: Sharing Power After the Iran-Contra A air. So what is the National Security Constitution, and why has Harold Hongju Koh published an updated version of his analysis a third of a century later? Koh’s concept asserts that “the power to conduct American foreign policy is not exclusively presidential, but is a power shared among the president, the Congress, and the courts.” Unfortunately, he adds, successive presidents “have repeatedly invoked an alternative vision of unchecked executive discretion.” is book examines that situation and recommends ways to restore constitutional balance. Harold Hongju Koh is the Sterling Professor of International Law and former dean at Yale Law School, and a former State Department legal adviser and assistant secretary of State for democracy, human rights, and labor. He is the author of nine books and numerous articles. American Imperialist: Cruelty and Consequence in the Scramble for Africa Arwen P. Mohun, University of Chicago Press, 2023, $30.00/hardcover, e-book available, 328 pages. Strikingly, the title of this biography does not contain the name of its subject—even though it is the author’s own great-grandfather, Richard Dorsey Mohun. at editorial choice likely re ects the profound ambivalence Arwen Mohun feels about her ancestor. ere is no question that Richard Mohun facilitated the brutal exploitation of countless Africans during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. On the other hand, he does not seem to have carried any particular animus toward them; for him, it was just a job.
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