reversible, and before shifts in demography against the and their wily and economic clout leave the West unable skipper, Dusty Baker. It’s a fresh and thor- to influence the rising powers of the East oughly enjoyable narrative—like TiVo-ing and South. through a great matchup, with Bissinger It’s an appealing vision. Garton Ash’s lingering over the good parts and skipping confidence in the essential goodwill of the junk. Western peoples—his belief that, together, There’s plenty of action, but Bissinger we can rise above our petty concerns and is too sensitive an observer and too com- act for the common good—makes it an af- plex a writer to settle for a simple play-by- fecting one as well. Yet embedded in it is a play. We watch La Russa’s pregame ritual fundamental and typically Western flaw. of making cards showing how each of his Garton Ash assumes that all humanity pitchers has done against the Cubs hitters, shares his own secular liberal aspirations. his irritation when inexperienced young In effect, Garton Ash’s Free World offers players hog the spotlight, and the flop the promise of a decent, perhaps even com- sweat when he chooses a risky tactic based fortable life devoid of transcendence. He not on numbers but on intuition. When consigns God to the margins. In reality, the lineup is ravaged by injuries, we’re however, God still haunts the world. In- with La Russa as he ponders and frets— deed, many of those upon whom Garton dining alone at Morton’s, lying awake all Ash is most eager to confer the blessings of night in the hotel. And we enter the man- liberty are adamant that God remain at the ager’s tunnel of concentration: Everything center of their universe. Any strategy for en- disappears except the motions of the larging the Free World that fails to take this game, as if it were played in pure silence. uncomfortable fact into consideration is La Russa’s internal conflicts are nicely doomed to fail. balanced against the stakes in the outcome —Andrew J. Bacevich of every pitch, but two events from the pre- vious year overshadow everything. With a novelist’s sense of when to expand the mo- THREE NIGHTS IN AUGUST: ment and when to roll with the action, Strategy, Heartbreak, and Joy Inside Bissinger skillfully discloses the lingering the Mind of a . heartbreaks: In 2002, the Cardinals’ By Buzz Bissinger. Houghton Mifflin. much-loved broadcaster, Jack Buck, died, 280 pp. $25 and, three days later, their popular 33- It’s a perilous journey through the mind year-old pitcher, , suffered a of a manager, filled fatal heart attack in his sleep. with potholes of depression and washouts Bissinger has finely cultivated the of fear, but we want to take it. We want to know what lies be- hind the glowering game face of that most enigmatic baseball man, and what subplots con- sume him—including the indi- vidual melodramas of a busload of barely post-adolescent mil- lionaires. Buzz Bissinger, the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of F r i d a y Night Lights (1990), was granted unlimited access to the St. Louis Cardinals’ organization by its legendary manager, . The book follows a Bantering with the Cubs’ Dusty Baker is one of the few things three-game series during 2003 that comes easily for Cardinals manager Tony La Russa.

Spring 2005 1 1 5 Current Books sportswriter’s hard-bitten style, and his His answer is a tentative yes, but only if book is rife with memorable phrases. A certain conditions are met. In chapters on fastball is “a false God.” , the recent experiences in Kosovo, East leadoff hitter for the Cubs, taps his black Timor, Afghanistan, and elsewhere, Ches- bat on the plate “as if it’s a divining rod in terman describes how transitional admin- search of water—plentiful abundance istrations have maintained law and order, around that plate if he can just find it.” provided humanitarian and development And my favorite: “The ball itself is some- assistance, consulted with local popula- times cruel, not simply a benign layering tions, established the rule of law, and ad- of twine and rubber and leather but a lit- ministered elections, all with varying de- tle organism with a perverse love of tur- grees of efficacy. The factors that make a moil. Where can I go to create the most transitional administration more likely to disruption? Who needs to be tested right succeed come as no surprise: a realistic a w a y ? ” plan tailored to the specific situation, the It takes a perverse mind to want to tangle commitment of troops from a powerful na- with that. We understand how such a mind tion or coalition, coordination between works after reading Three Nights in Au- military operations and efforts to build a g u s t—maybe even enough to make us retire new government, ample time, and plenty as armchair managers and leave it to the of money. pros. No, forget that. Second-guessing is one But Chesterman also analyzes why so of the timeless pleasures of the game. many efforts founder, and why the United —April Smith Nations and countries that contribute troops to these efforts are often unwilling to invest sufficient resources. The UN has YOU, THE PEOPLE: only recently begun to oversee transitional The United Nations, Transitional administrations, and it does so on a strictly Administration, and State-Building. ad hoc basis, without a permanent office By Simon Chesterman. Oxford Univ. for managing such missions. Its reluctance Press. 296 pp. $95 is unfortunate, but many within the UN In this fine, timely, and usable study, believe that traditional peacekeeping is the Simon Chesterman analyzes the complicated only type of military operation appropriate process of transferring power from an inter- for the organization, and they fear, justifi- national authority that has governed a coun- ably, that if the UN were better prepared try temporarily to a viable local regime. Be- for state-building missions, it would be fore shifting power, the outside authority called upon to undertake them more often. must build sustainable institutions and train In Iraq, the failure of the United States local people for government jobs, while also to plan effectively led to a breakdown of laying the groundwork for democracy by law and order, which in turn provoked re- building trust in government institutions and sentment and resistance from the population encouraging people to take part in the dem- and required far more time, troops, and ocratic process. But the preparations for money than expected. The January elec- democracy are hampered by the fact that the tions may have seemed like a magic bullet, transitional administration itself is anything a chance to give the people their democ- but democratic: Notwithstanding the good racy and then get out of the way. But with- intentions of its creators, it’s essentially a mil- out peace and security, sustainable institu- itary occupation. The contrast between prag- tions, and economic stability, democracy matic means and idealistic ends is stark. As won’t necessarily take hold. As Chester- Chesterman, a senior associate at the New man shows, fledgling democracies can York-based International Peace Academy, quickly devolve into autocracy or civil war. asks at the beginning of his book, “Is it possi- A successful transition from autocracy to ble to establish the conditions for legitimate and democratic self-rule takes years, not sustainable national governance through a months. period of benevolent foreign autocracy?” —Hadley Ross

1 1 6 Wilson Quarterly