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There is nothing for you here: finding opportunity in the twenty-first century

2022; Oxford University Press; Volume: 98; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1093/ia/iiab253

1468-2346

Fraser Cameron,

Canadian Policy and Governance

This is not your mainstream International Relations (IR) book, and at first sight it may disappoint some readers that the author, an accomplished scholar on Russia, does not offer more of an insight into the machinations of the National Security Council (NSC) under President Trump (Hill was senior director for European and Russian affairs from 2017 to 2019), or explain why she accepted Michael Flynn's invitation to work under Trump. We knew Trump was ignorant on most foreign policy issues, we knew he had a penchant for autocrats, we knew he did not read briefs, we knew he overestimated his ability to do deals. Hill, who admits she was naive about US politics, adds some vignettes and even suggests that Trump's ego was a national security threat. Most of her time was spent ‘fighting home grown fires as America was at war with itself, including inside the government’ (p. 191). However, more insights into how the NSC functioned in relation to other government departments would have been interesting, especially the State Department under Rex Tillerson and the Pentagon under James Mattis, both of whom Trump fired. How did the NSC view the activities of Trump's lawyer, Rudi Giuliani, and EU Ambassador Gordon Sandland, rushing around Kiev looking for dirt on Joe and Hunter Biden?