Diplomacy Books - Page 12

Nixon in the World: American Foreign Relations, 1969-1977

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Editorial Review:

In the 1970s, the United States faced challenges on a number of fronts. By nearly every measure, American power was no longer unrivalled. The task of managing America's relative decline fell to President Richard Nixon, Henry Kissinger, and Gerald Ford. From 1969 to 1977, Nixon, Kissinger, and Ford reoriented U.S. foreign policy from its traditional poles of liberal interventionism and conservative isolationism into a policy of active but conservative engagement. In Nixon in the World, seventeen leading historians of the Cold War and U.S. foreign policy show how they did it, where they succeeded, and where they took their new strategy too far. Drawing on newly declassified materials, they provide authoritative and compelling analyses of issues such as Vietnam, detente, arms control, and the U.S.-China rapprochement, creating the first comprehensive volume on American foreign policy in this pivotal era.

The Blood of Government: Race, Empire, the United States, and the Philippines

Paul A. Kramer

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In 1899 the United States, having announced its arrival as a world power during the Spanish-Cuban-American War, inaugurated a brutal war of imperial conquest against the Philippine Republic. Over the next five decades, U.S. imperialists justified their colonial empire by crafting novel racial ideologies adapted to new realities of collaboration and anticolonial resistance. In this pathbreaking, transnational study, Paul Kramer reveals how racial politics served U.S. empire, and how empire-building in turn transformed ideas of race and nation in both the United States and the Philippines.

Kramer argues that Philippine-American colonial history was characterized by struggles over sovereignty and recognition. In the wake of a racial-exterminist war, U.S. colonialists, in dialogue with Filipino elites, divided the Philippine population into "civilized" Christians and "savage" animists and Muslims. The former were subjected to a calibrated colonialism that gradually extended them self-government as they demonstrated their "capacities." The latter were governed first by Americans, then by Christian Filipinos who had proven themselves worthy of shouldering the "white man's burden." Ultimately, however, this racial vision of imperial nation-building collided with U.S. nativist efforts to insulate the United States from its colonies, even at the cost of Philippine independence. Kramer provides an innovative account of the global transformations of race and the centrality of empire to twentieth-century U.S. and Philippine histories.

Vatican Secret Diplomacy: Joseph P. Hurley and Pope Pius XII

Charles R. Gallagher

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Editorial Review:

In the corridors of the Vatican on the eve of World War II, American Catholic priest Joseph Patrick Hurley found himself in the midst of secret diplomatic dealings and intense debate. Hurley’s deeply felt American patriotism and fixed ideas about confronting Nazism directly led to a mighty clash with Pope Pius XII. It was 1939, the earliest days of Pius’s papacy, and controversy within the Vatican over policy toward Nazi Germany was already heated. This groundbreaking book is both a biography of Joseph Hurley, the first American to achieve the rank of nuncio, or Vatican ambassador, and an insider’s view of the alleged silence of the pope on the Holocaust and Nazism.

 

Drawing on Hurley’s unpublished archives, the book documents critical debates in Pope Pius’s Vatican, secret U.S.-Vatican dealings, the influence of Detroit’s flamboyant anti-Semitic priest Charles E. Coughlin, and the controversial case of Croatia’s Cardinal Stepinac. The book also sheds light on the powerful connections between religion and politics in the twentieth century.

 

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Persona Non Grata: A Memoir of Disenchantment with the Cuban Revolution

Jorge Edwards

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Editorial Review:

In 1970 Jorge Edwards was sent by socialist Chilean President Salvador Allende as his country's first envoy to break the diplomatic blockade that had sealed Cuba for over a decade. His arrival coincided with the turning point of the revolution, when Castro began to repress the very intellectuals he once courted. In Kafkaesque detail, Edwards records the four explosive months he spent in Havana trying to open a Chilean embassy and his disenchantment with the revolution. His stay culminated in the arrest of his friend Heberto Padilla—the first imprisonment of a well-known writer by the regime—for giving Edwards a "negative view of the revolution." In a menacing midnight political debate with Edwards immediately after Padilla's arrest, Castro argued that in this phase of the revolution, bourgeois writers would no longer have "anything to do in Cuba." Castro accused Edwards of "conduct hostile to the revolution" and declared him "persona non grata." The winner of the Cervantes prize—the Spanish language equivalent to the Nobel Prize for literature—Jorge Edwards' memoir splendidly recounts this time and the wrath of Castro.

Making Friends with Hitler: Lord Londonderry, the Nazis, and the Road to War

Ian Kershaw

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"Anglo-German Fellowship" 5 out of 5 stars.
10 of 10 people found this review helpful.

Ian Kershaw continues to add to his list of extraordinarily valuable books on Nazi-era Germany in this volume focusing on Lord Londonderry's activities prior to the World War II. Londonderry (ironically, a cousin of Churchill) took the lead in attempting to improve relations between Britain and Hitler's Germany and, thereby, head off war. By focusing on Londonderry (1878-1949), the reader can come to understand the various reasons why appeasement appealed to so many British politicans and the general public.

Of course, the interesting question is why did Londonderry so embrace the German point of view that he ended up publicly disgraced? Certainly some personal motives played a role, most directly his desire for vindication after being removed from the Cabinet as Air Minister (not to mention his failure to be named Viceroy for India) and generally being humiliated for his visits to Germany (Goering in particular), return visits from Nazi luminaries like Foreign Minister von Ribbentrop, and very public pro-German activities and writings. Kershaw suggests that like many in his aristocratic class, facing increased dimnishment of their wealth and power, Hitler was seen as a helpful bulwark against "Bolshevism" and domestic socialist movements. In exchange for a free hand in Europe, Hitler would protect the prerogatives of the 0.1% of the population that owned 1/3 of Britain's wealth.

Kershaw argues that Hitler was quite masterful in his manipulation of British public opinion--and one can hardly disagree. He also successfully exploited a split in the positions of France and Britain. Through Kershaw's skillful analysis, the genesis and appeal of the appeasement movement become evident. It is no wonder that Chamberlin fell into the trap. For Londonderry and this group, the agreement at Munich was a triumph, because it avoided war and insured a valid sphere of control for Germany. It took both "Krystalnacht" and Hitler's blatant invasion of the remainder of Czechoslovakia before Londonderry began to get the picture. Perhaps the rapid slide downward of the aristocracy after the war is, in part, attributable to the fact that many members shared Londonderry's perspective--and the rest of British society knew it.

As is to be expected, superb research and invaluable notes are part of the package. Like all of Kershaw's volumes, it is well written and easy even for us Yanks to follow as he maneuvers through the ins and out of British politics of the 1930's. The bottom line: the whole appeasement movement (which in hindsight seems somewhat inexplicable) becomes quite understandable after reading this book. That is its greatest contribution.

Editorial Review:

Ian Kershaw’s biography of Adolf Hitler is widely regarded as the definitive work on the subject, as well as one of the most brilliant biographies of our time. In Making Friends with Hitler, the great scholar shines remarkable new light on decisions that led to war by tracing the extraordinary story of Lord Londonderry—one of Britain’s wealthiest aristocrats, cousin of Winston Churchill, confidant of the king, and the only British cabinet member to outwardly support the Nazi party. Through Londonderry’s tragic tale, Kershaw shows us that behind the accepted dogma of English appeasement and German bullying is a much more complicated and interesting reality—full of miscalculations on both sides that proved to be among the most fateful in history.

The U.N. Exposed: How the United Nations Sabotages America's Security and Fails the World

Eric Shawn

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Editorial Review:

Long before the UN’s mammoth Oil for Food scandal, conservatives were both offended by and suspicious of this supranational organization, which seems to oppose and criticize the United States at every opportunity.

For most of the press, the UN is a beleaguered force for good in the world, one that deserves even more support from the United States (which already pays for 22 percent of its operating budget). But Eric Shawn, a senior correspondent and anchor for Fox News Channel, has aggressively reported on the many transgressions of UN officials for nearly two years.

In The UN Exposed, he uses the Oil for Food scandal as a starting point to expose the organization’s inefficiency, corruption, and extreme anti-American agenda. Shawn reveals, for example:
• how France, Russia, and China were bribed by Saddam’s billions to oppose America
• how the Security Council turned a blind eye to Saddam’s violations for nearly thirteen years
• how UN diplomats and bureaucrats abuse their privileges and waste billions

Many Americans are already disturbed by the UN’s hypocrisy. After reading Shawn’s book, they will have a much better sense of what really goes on behind its closed doors and what America should do to make it work better.

How to Cure a Fanatic

Amos Oz

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Editorial Review:

Internationally acclaimed novelist Amos Oz grew up in war-torn Jerusalem, where as a boy he witnessed firsthand the poisonous consequences of fanaticism. In two concise, powerful essays, the award-winning author offers unique insight into the true nature of fanaticism and proposes a reasoned and respectful approach to resolving the Israeli Palestinian conflict. As an added feature, he comments on contemporary issues--the Gaza pullout, Yasser Arafat's death, and the war in Iraq--in an extended interview at the end of the book.

Oz argues that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not a war of religion or cultures or traditions, but rather a real estate dispute--one that will be resolved not by greater understanding, but by painful compromise. As he writes, "The seeds of fanaticism always lie in uncompromising righteousness, the plague of many centuries."

The brilliant clarity of these essays, coupled with Oz's ironic sense of humor in illuminating the serious, breathes new life into this centuries-old debate. He emphasizes the importance of imagination in learning to define and respect other's space, and analyzes the twisted historical roots that have led to Middle East violence. In his interview, Oz sends a message to Americans. Why not, he proposes, advocate for a twenty-first-century equivalent of the Marshall Plan aimed at preventing poverty and despair in the region? "What is necessary is to work on the ground, for example, building homes for hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees who have been rotting in camps for almost sixty years now."

Fresh, insightful, and inspiring, How to Cure a Fanatic brings a new voice of sanity to the cacophony on Israeli-Palestinian relations--a voice no one can afford to ignore.

The Truth About Camp David: The Untold Story About the Collapse of the Middle East Peace Process (Nation Books)

Clayton E. Swisher

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Editorial Review:

The collapse of both sets of Arab-Israeli negotiations in 2000 led not only to recrimination and bloodshed, with the outbreak of the second intifada, but to the creation of a new myth. Syrian and Palestinian intransigence was blamed for the current disastrous state of affairs, as both parties rejected a "generous" peace offering from the Israelis that would have brought peace to the region. The Truth About Camp David shatters that myth. Based on the riveting, eyewitness accounts of more than forty direct participants involved in the latest rounds of Arab-Israeli negotiations, including the Camp David 2000 summit, former federal investigator-turned-investigative journalist Clayton E. Swisher provides a compelling counter-narrative to the commonly accepted history. The Truth About Camp David details the tragic inner workings of the Clinton Administration's negotiating mayhem, their eleventh hour blunders and miscalculations, and their concluding decision to end the Oslo process with blame and disengagement. It is not only a fascinating historical look at Middle East politics on the brink of disaster, but a revelatory portrait of how all-too-human American political considerations helped facilitate the present crisis.

International Organizations: The Politics and Processes of Global Governance

Margaret P. Karns, Karen A. Mingst

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too much minutia and disorganized 2 out of 5 stars.
1 of 2 people found this review helpful.

It seems as though there are details on every single international organization there is - no matter how boring.

It seemed as though I had to search across many chapters for information that would have been better packaged together.

I really enjoy international politics but didn't really care for this text.

Bible for International Organization Entrance 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 2 people found this review helpful.

This book is about International Organizations as we see from the title. It organize all kinds of actors - from international organizations to civil society or NGOs. I have never seen a book like this which is well-organized. For example, it have highlighted headings and sub-headings, easily understandable boxes (tables and figures) and finally, suggested further reading is also helpful part of this book and make it perfect!
Of course, it will not be easy for basic-level students of IO, however, it must have been helpful to them. No pains, no gains! Some students will think it should be like 'google' website - which must be easily searchable through just typing and clicking, but, if you read, this book suggest us with valuable commments in each introductory parts.
Studying only power politics will be concluded with biased knowledge. I highly recommend this book to read.

Editorial Review:

The authors cover topics such as: understanding global governance, the challenges of governance, the theoretical foundations of global governance and the need for global governance.

Innocent Abroad: An Intimate Account of American Peace Diplomacy in the Middle East

Martin Indyk

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