The Age of the Unthinkable: Why the New World Order Constantly Surprises Us and What We Can Do About It

Ramo, a strategic adviser and former journalist, presents his proposals for rectifying foreign policy mistakes in a discussion that ranges from the public service work of Hezbollah to the German painter Anselm Kiefer. He offers a sustained aura of cool competence, less lecturer than dinner companion. Wrapping listeners in the cocoon of his hushed, keen rush of words, Ramo is an ideal conversationalist, even if the conversation, for these purposes, runs in only one direction. A Little, Brown hardcover (Reviews, Feb. 9). (Mar.)