To Build a Better World – Philip Zelikow and Condoleezza Rice

This book is essentially a review of European political history between 1988 and 1992. It deals with the collapse of the Soviet Union, establishment of the European Union, unification of Germany, and the associated political crisis management by the US and European governments. The authors were both senior staff members of the US Bush Administration in that historic time. They were witnesses to and intimately involved in the high level US and European government efforts to prevent economic, political, humanitarian, and military catastrophe on the European continent during that transition period.

The authors provide a clear account of the efforts to manage the political and economic instability in the face of the epic changes occurring, particularly in eastern Europe. They give a candid view of what was going on at the highest levels of the US and the major European governments – the goals, actions, and fear that leaders were wrestling with at the time.

I found this book especially interesting to me on a personal level. In that exact timeframe I was pursuing investment opportunities and development of business relationships in the Soviet Union and its eastern European satellite countries. Of course I did not know, and I doubt the senior bureaucrats I was working with knew, about the turmoil in their own governments and all the secret activities going on at the highest levels. My experience 25 years ago makes more sense now in light of the revelations in this book.

The Forgotten 500 – Gregory A. Freeman

This book documents the history of Operation Halyard, the greatest rescue mission of World War II. The achievement is little known today because US and UK politics kept it classified for 60 years. It was so secret that Yugoslavian General Mihailovich, who protected our downed airmen from the Nazis until they could be rescued, was secretly awarded the Legion of Merit for his service by President Truman but never even told. The award was finally presented to his daughter in 2005.

During the war the allies repeatedly bombed the major Axis oil refining facilities in Ploesti, Romania. Because those facilities provided a third of the fuel that powered the Nazi war machine they were a prime target for bombing raids. For that same reason they were heavily defended by the Germans. The result was literally scores of allied bombers were shot down. Many crashed in Yugoslavia with as many as 10 airmen bailing out of each.

Between August and December of 1944 the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the forerunner of the Central Intelligence Agency, with support of the 15th Air Force rescued 512 downed airmen from German occupied territory in Yugoslavia with no loss of American lives. In retrospect it seems like a miracle.

Letters to my Palestinian Neighbor – Yossi Klein Halevi

As the title suggests the author has structured his book as a set of letters he would write to his Palestinian neighbor. The neighbor is not a specific person but an anonymous Palestinian individual with whom he would like to have a dialog.

The book has two primary themes: the first is a brief history of the trials and tribulation of the Jewish people over the past hundred years culminating in the creation of the state of Israel; the second is a discussion of the relationship between the Israelis and Palestinians since the establishment of Israel in 1948. He explains how that history has influenced the collective Israeli attitude and how they see the conflict between themselves and the Palestinians today.

The author clearly writes from an Israeli point of view. However, he makes a serious effort to try to understand and acknowledge the conflict between their two peoples from the Palestinian perspective as well. He recognizes under Israeli occupation Palestinians suffer constant frustration, humiliation, and even sometimes physical abuse.

The most valuable part of this book in my mind is the author’s discussion of the painful choices facing Palestinians and Israelis since both peoples have legitimate claims on the same land. He offers practical, though not necessarily popular, solutions to their conflict so they may live side by side peacefully in two sovereign states.

Tyrant:  Shakespeare on Politics – Stephen Greenblatt

The author explores the social, psychological, and political aspects of tyranny as represented in Shakespeare’s artistic works. He dissects several of Shakespeare’s plays (Richard III, MacBeth, Lear, Coriolanus, and the societies they rule over) in an effort to illuminate the ways Shakespeare exposed the lust for absolute power and the catastrophic consequences of its execution.

In these plays Shakespeare presents economic misery, political classes in disarray, fragile institutions, and populist anger of the disenfranchised. He shows how people will put up with knowingly being lied to, partisan rancor, and fundamental indecency of those in power rather than risk taking action to stop a tyrant.

The book certainly represents Shakespeare’s work as I remember it. But reflecting on it within today’s context is especially interesting. The single most striking aspect of the book for me was Shakespeare’s depiction of Richard III. Those around him rushed to praise everything he did or said, supported his pathological rage and cruelty, and accommodated his narcissism. If I did not know who was being characterized I could easily believe the author was writing about Donald Trump.

The Immoral Majority – Ben Howe

Ben Howe is an evangelical Christian, a conservative writer and filmmaker. In the 2016 election he was one of a few “never Trump” Republicans who couldn’t bring themselves to support Trump’s candidacy but felt Clinton did not represent their values either. He says he voted for a third party candidate.

The central theme of his book is that the evangelical Christian community has essentially sold its collective soul to gain political power. He discusses how evangelical leaders rationalized Christian values in order to support electing Donald Trump. Their goal was not strengthening Christianity but gaining political influence. He revisits evangelical leaders’ expressed outrage over Clinton’s immoral behavior 20 years ago; at the time they said he must resign because “character matters”. In Trump’s case they applied relativism to excused his immorality on the grounds that he is achieving a greater good.

Though I do not share Howe’s faith I do have a wealth of experience with evangelical Christians’ attitudes and behavior. I agree with the author’s assessment that evangelicals tend to lack empathy and are relatively intolerant, judgmental, and hypocritical. The book is well worth reading. If you are not acquainted with evangelical Christian dogma you will be enlightened by one of their own. If you already think evangelicals represent the more un-Godly elements of the faith, the author provides ample factual evidence. 

The Fifth Domain – Richard Clarke and Robert Knake

The focus of this book is security in cyberspace. The title of the book itself is the term the Pentagon uses to describe war in cyberspace. Of course the other four domains are land, sea, air, and space.

The authors discuss in detail the potential for nation-states or criminals to destroy or severely alter the very foundation of our 21st century civilization through cyber attacks. They describe several cases where attacks have already been carried out to disrupt civil society, steal intellectual property, and/or hold corporate data hostage for ransom. They also say that Russia and China currently have the capability to shut down much of our power grid, oil and gas pipelines, and water systems if they choose.

The authors make it clear that we know how to defend from such attacks but are not taking the threat seriously enough. They also make the case that the responsibility for security lies mostly with the private sector and not with the federal government; the government’s role should be to prosecute criminals and act against nation-states for abuses when they do occur. The authors say that the intrusion into business operations and individual privacy that the government would need to successfully prevent cyber attacks would be totally unacceptable to Americans.

Though written by different authors with different professional experience and focus, Fifth Domain in many ways is a companion volume to The Shadow War by Jim Schiotto which I wrote about earlier. Both deal with the potential for adversaries to wreak havoc in our whole society including our ability to defend ourselves against determined attack from nation-state actors or well organized criminal cartels.

Ill Winds – Larry Diamond

The author is recognized scholar on what makes democracies thrive as well as what makes them die. The central theme of this book is that democracy is under threat around the world and that the defense and advancement of democratic governance worldwide relies heavily on global leadership by the United States. 

He makes the case that in this age of big data, the internet, and social media the very openness of liberal democracies makes them vulnerable to outside interference from authoritarian regimes. He discusses at some length the threat of subversion from Russia and China and details several such successful initiatives those two state actors have launched against not only the US but other democracies as well.

The author makes a distinction between the Russian and Chinese attitudes and objectives. While both focus on undermining confidence in democratic values and institutions their goals are not the same. He says that mostly Russia’s Putin is trying to regain standing as an equal on the world stage and is overcome with rage at the humiliation of the collapse of the Soviet Union. China’s Xi on the other hand is playing a long game pushing a national ambition for global economic and political dominance.

I actually just stumbled onto this book when I was browsing the library. The really most valuable part of it is that the author lays out what we need to do to win the war between democratic and authoritarian governance. I strongly recommend it as a contextual source of what is going on in the world today, how to re-enforce democracy, and especially how the US should relate to Russia and China.

The Shadow War – Jim Schiotto

The author makes the case with factual information and interviews with military and intelligence leaders that the US is currently in a real war with Russia and China, and at this point in time they are winning. He says this undeclared asymmetric war is the greatest danger to our national security that we face.

Since they know they cannot win a shooting war Russia and China are taking aggressive actions that are just below the level that they conclude will provoke the US to act decisively. Their goal is to weaken the US by neutralizing its military advantage and its western alliances so they can exercise much more dominance in the world community. And the more both countries get away with it the more they continue to push the envelope.

The Russian annexation of Crimea, political destabilization of Ukraine, cyber attacks on Estonia, and our own 2016 election interference are examples of this aggression. Likewise he sites the Chinese building and militarizing “islands” in the international waters of the South China Sea and their cyber theft of US military and commercial intellectual property, including detailed plans for our military C 17 cargo plane and F 35 fighter as example of this asymmetric war.

Whether you read this whole book or not you should read chapter 6. It is absolutely sobering. The author details in that chapter the extent to which both Russia and China are establishing offensive weapons in space while the US is not. He discusses how Russian or Chinese space weapons could render our military virtually paralyzed in the early stages of any conflict.

The Town That Started the Civil War – Nat Brandt

Oberlin, a small college town in northern Ohio, became a center of the national battle against the Fugitive Slave Act in 1858 and 1859. The event that created the conflict started on September 13, 1858 when an Oberlin resident, a runaway slave named John Price, was kidnapped by slave hunters with arrest warrants from Kentucky.

Oberlin, Ohio was a very socially progressive community, maybe the most progressive in the nation, in the 1840s and 1850s. It was a fully racially integrated town with a large population of African-Americans, both freemen and escaped former slaves. Men and women of both races worshiped together, dined together, studied together, and lived next door to each other in harmony.

The kidnaping of John Price mobilized virtually the entire community to recovered and free the former slave from his captors, which they succeeded in doing. The book describes the legal and political conflict that event created among local, state and federal authorities and how it all played out.

The Enemy of the People – Jim Acosta

As many people know Jim Acosta is CNN’s Chief White House correspondent. He is a seasoned professional but seen by some conservatives, especially the alt-right and the Trump Administration as too aggressive. His approach to reporting on the White House is in the style of legendary Sam Donaldson. The book reflects his observations and views of this White House, President and staff, as contrasted to others.

Virtually none of the factual information in the book is new to me. Every American has lived it the past 4 years. What is sobering though is reliving it all in its day by day chronology. When every week there is a new crisis or shock coming out of the Administration one tends to forget how often and absurd it really is. It is also easy to see how a strong reporter would naturally become confrontational in light of Trump’s prolific lying as well as the incompetence and/or dishonesty of many members of the White House staff and other Trump political surrogates. The book is well worth the read if you can stand to relive the roller coaster ride!