Joey Torino, a tough and independent American diplomat, is recalled to Washington after a fight in Moscow. Chosen for a dangerous mission to find a missing colleague in the Caucasus, he faces a complex conflict with no easy resolution. As tensions rise, Torino must navigate perilous choices to find a way out.
Joey Torino is a man who has tired of the busy, and dangerous, life he has led, and has simply decided to opt out. He is done with all that—the pressures of doing something that someone else wants him to do, the risks of doing things he questions, resents, or even disagrees with. And he has managed to escape that life, quietly, without fanfare or animosity, and with just enough income to be able to live, in the northern forests of Maine, in the secluded, modest style he prefers. And he is happy in his simple life here. But then a message from his past arrives. Pen Highsmith has another difficult mission for him, and although those dangerous episodes in Russia are long past now, Joey’s „special skills“ are needed again. Joey faces a difficult situation, involving the Russians, a complicated low-key civil conflict, ancient suspicions and animosities, and a ruthless, relentless enemy, hidden in the mountains—in Afghanistan. And the monumental investments of the Wilde Oil company might be put at risk, under certain circumstances and in some situations. There are clear risks, and potential dangers, which have to be dealt with and surmounted, in a country, in a region, which is complicated and potentially dangerous. So Highsmith reaches out to Joey Torino.
A Key U.S. Negotiator’s Memoirs on the Development of the CSCE into the OSCE
The Helsinki Final Act of the 1975 Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe (CSCE) established rules for legitimate changes in national borders, emphasizing peaceful means and mutual agreement. Alongside the 1990 Charter of Paris for a New Europe, the Helsinki Accords fostered peaceful coexistence between the West and the Eastern Bloc, culminating in a “Joint Declaration of Twenty-two States” that marked the end of the Cold War, with NATO and Warsaw Pact members recognizing they were no longer adversaries. The ongoing Helsinki process, now represented by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), has contributed to the establishment of pluralist democracy, market economies, and personal freedoms. This framework can inform current challenges in Ukraine and other regions formerly part of the Soviet Union. John J. Maresca, a senior U.S. diplomat deeply involved in these negotiations, served as the first and only U.S. Ambassador to the newly-independent states after the USSR's dissolution. In this memoir, he recounts the journey to the Helsinki Accords and subsequent agreements, reflecting on a transformative period that remains highly relevant today.