To the Secretary: Leaked Embassy Cables and America’s Foreign Policy Disconnect

In this well-written and informative effort, former diplomat Thompson-Jones provides context to the State Department cables released by WikiLeaks in 2010. Writing from the “calmer vantage point” of five years later, she reveals what the leaked cables “did and didn’t do to the world of diplomacy.” As she explains, what’s most significant about the information leak is that it happened “in real time,” as opposed to the decades-long process by which secret government documents are typically declassified. For readers interested in the behind-the-scenes role of embassy workers and diplomats, this is an especially informative story, and Thompson-Jones tells it through colorful glimpses of life overseas. A recurring theme is the divide, during the George W. Bush administration, between the pragmatism of diplomats stationed abroad and the “more ideological and ambitious agenda” of Washington policy makers. Her sometimes withering assessments of the Obama administration’s performance and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s presidential suitability add much to the book’s topicality but little to its account of diplomacy. In general, though, this well-organized and readable book amply succeeds in fulfilling one of Thompson-Jones’s main objectives —to use the words and stories of Foreign Service officers to “demystify their work.” (July)