There Is Nothing for You Here: Finding Opportunity in the Twenty-First Century by Fiona Hill. Fiona holds History and Russian degrees from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. At Harvard University, she earned a Masters in Russian and modern history, and a Ph.D. in Russian history.
Today Fiona is a senior fellow in the Center on the United States and Europe in the Foreign Policy program at The Brookings Institution.
She served as deputy assistant to the President and senior director for European and Russian affairs on the National Security Council from 2017 to 2019. In addition, from 2006 to 2009, Fiona served as the leading national intelligence officer for Russia and Eurasia at The National Intelligence Council.
Fiona is certainly delivering an immensely personal view of her life. If you approach this as an impeachment tell all, look elsewhere. This is a well told story regarding repeated bias Fiona has encountered from childhood to The White House.
This is an invaluable lesson that bias reaches far and wide and the impacts are indeed life changing. However it should not overshadow her role as an expert service our country. Her last service ran into a wall of bias and ignorance. Life in Bishop Auckland, England, her place of birth also mimics many post World War II industrial regions. All were hard hit by economic reforms in the 1980s.
From England to Russia to America
I found a very striking message: the failing economies of the UK and Russia now appear across the US. That is a growing concern indeed.
Her journey from a coal mining town to Harvard University, then to the White House is impressive. Better still is now Fiona shares how she overcame many biases to achieving success. This includes vulnerabilities to the slightest email bias.I am confident this resulted in policy written by less than the best qualified.
Bias begins in school
It is refreshing to learn how Fiona earned top marks in her middle school while taking her country’s standardized testing. This permitted her the luxury of entrance to a top tier school at St. Andrews University. Yet, bias in UK schools is not different from American schools in the lack of female students perusing STEM careers.
Timeless lessons via Bishop Auckland
Fiona certainly returns to lessons from Bishop Auckland including family and school. And some are rather funny. Her hometown was looking to drive tourism as a revenue and employment resource. The area in fact, choose to move three buildings together (from different village locations) to create a destination. Fiona compared this to what is certainly found across America: “In Pennsylvania, Jim Thorpe has used its coal-mining heritage and the outstanding scenic beauty of the Pocono Mountains to build up a tourist industry.”
Pale, Male, and Yale
Perhaps, Fiona tells the better point of view as a woman succeeding in a man’s world of White House and Russian policy experts. It appears as it is, dominated by old white men from the Ivy League. Actually, Marie Yovanovitch in her book Lessons From the Edge by referred to this group as “pale, male, and Yale” while at the same time David Halberstam’s timeless classic The Best and the Brightest also immediately comes to mind. So yes, it has been that way of thinking for generations.
The Sunderland train wreck
The insights that supporters or detractors, perhaps fence sitters regarding the role of US foreign policy, the obviously awkward role of Gordon Sunderland is laid out clearly. By April 2017 Sunderland donated $1 million to the Presidential Inaugural Committee through four LLCs: BV-2 LLC, Dunson Cornerstone LLC, Buena Vista Investments LLC, and Dunson Investments LLC. In fact, who would place a campaign contribution above the long term interests of the US?
In addition, Fiona conveys what many at State and the Intelligence community understand: the President had no clue how the process of diplomacy actually functioned. The family laws only interested in finding a way to profit off each decision.
“The Russian Bitch”
Fiona’s experience engaging Putin was a certainly part of her role. Yet, it would be of interest to learn the White House referred to her as “The Russia bitch”. Stay classy. Since the January 6th committee testimony by former White House officials, these new revelations place in a far more accurate scope, views taken by the additional former White House staff. It is shocking indeed.
A warning of things to come?
The close of Fiona’s book, she is suggesting our country must understand we are repeating similar economic positions of both Bishop Auckland and Russia at the turn of the 20th century, sans COVID. Fiona in fact, does address the pandemic and the fumbling role of the White House. This is also another clear indicator that the outcry was ravaged by COVID in 2020 the White House provided plenty of ammunition to fuel anger as America was searching for a vaccine solution.
In conclusion, Fiona’s book title is paramount for understanding her message. If we ignore emerging parallel lines to the UK economy, and to a lesser degree Putin’s Russia, another collapse of any key market may (with more unplanned events) trigger another economic crisis. Fiona is certainly delivering a superb, insightful view to her life as a leading Russia expert, the quid pro quo impeachment and overcoming bias.