Recent Books
182 foreign affairs
Military, Scientific, and
TechnologicalLawrence D. Freedman
Call Sign Chaos: Learning to Lead
BY JIM MATTIS AND BING WEST.
Random House, 2019, 320 pp.I
n this memoir, Mattis does not
comment directly on the Trump
administration, from which he
resigned as secretary of defense in
December 2018. But it’s clear from his
resignation letter (reproduced in the
book) and his persistent stress on the
importance of stable, healthy alliances
(which are not a feature of U.S. Presi-
dent Donald Trump’s volatile approach
to foreign policy) that Mattis didn’t see
eye to eye with the president. He is
more forthright in his criticism of
Presidents George W. Bush and Barack
Obama: the first for being in too much
of a rush to invade Iraq and the second
for being in too much of a rush to
withdraw. Mattis also blames General
Tommy Franks for failing to capture
Osama bin Laden at Tora Bora, in
Afghanistan, in 2001, from where the
al Qaeda leader managed to escape to
Pakistan. The book’s main concerns,
however, are the practical and ethical
challenges of military leadership. Mattis
draws on his deep professionalism and
knowledge of military history in de-
scribing the stress of battle and the
tough decision to send soldiers into the
field to kill and be killed.the United States and the Department of
Justice’s fumbling in prosecuting Ranbaxy
and its leaders for criminal behavior such
as faking compliance with fda rules.
Such illicit activity turns out to be
widespread in foreign generic drug
firms, especially those in China and
India. These firms are skilled at fooling
the fda and other regulatory agencies.
Eban’s detailed investigation reveals that
government bureaucracies in the United
States and abroad are ill equipped for
the task of regulating the pharmaceuti-
cal industry overseas.
Empowering the Great Energy Transition:
Policy for a Low-Carbon Future
BY SCOTT VICTOR VALENTINE,
MARILYN A. BROWN, AND
BENJAMIN K. SOVACOOL. Columbia
University Press, 2019, 336 pp.
This useful survey of the nexus between
global energy use and climate change
studies technological developments in
alternative energy sources and traces
how governments and communities
have responded—or failed to respond—
to the climate crisis. Renewable energy
has become cheaper, making alternative
forms of energy—from the sun, wind,
biogas, and other sources—increasingly
competitive with fossil fuels. The
authors also sketch the ways that people
can conserve energy with only modest
changes in their behavior and how local
leaders and communities can play a big
role in making the inevitable transition
away from fossil fuels.