There is Nothing for You Here: Finding Opportunity in the 21^st Century

By Fiona Hill

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt/October, 2021.

Reviewed by Colin Robertson

October 31^st, 2021

Fiona Hill went from being a relatively anonymous Washington policy wonk to front-page news when she provided riveting testimony to Congress during then-President Donald Trump’s first impeachment hearing. Describing the Trump tribe’s efforts to blame Ukraine for interference in the 2016 election as a “fictional narrative”, Hill said it was a fabrication by Moscow to harm the United States. “I would ask” she said before the committee, “that you please not promote politically driven falsehoods that so clearly advance Russian interests.” That Russia readily exploits partisan divisions to undermine the United States from within still takes place, as Hill describes in her new book.

There is Nothing for You Here: Finding Opportunity in the 21^st Century is a memoir that is by turns poignant, funny, wonky, but always informative.

It’s a book in four parts. The opening chapter — “Coal House” — describes Hill’s early life and the critical role of her extended family and friends in the community. She grew up in what had been the coal mining town of Bishop Auckland; in northern England’s County Durham. Her father and grandfather were both coal miners who had quit school to work in the mines at 14 and 13 but by the early sixties, the mines were closing. Her father found work as a hospital porter. Her parents knew that education was the way to a better life but even with her degree from St. Andrews, in what remained socially stratified England, Hill still had  the “wrong” accent, the “wrong” clothes, and came from the “wrong” class.

And so, she took the advice her father offered — to leave. Hence, the quotation marks around the title of her memoir: “There is nothing for you here”. Hill moved to America for the same reasons that have drawn so many who’ve found a less obstructed path to success than their own countries offered them.

The next part of her life — “Divided House” — covers her studies at Harvard, where she did her PhD in history, then worked at the Kennedy School. On an exchange to Russia, she watched Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev sign the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces Agreement. She was senior director for Russia and Eurasia on the National Intelligence Council, where she briefed both presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama.

Her 2013 book Mr. Putin, Operative in the Kremlin, co-authored with Cliff Gaddy is still a go-to source for those who want to better understand the Russian leader. As Hill writes, Putin applied the skills he learned in the KGB as being something to everybody, a populist celebrity who is now in the process of transforming himself into the father of the nation and, essentially, being president for life by extending his rule until 2036.

The third part takes us to the White House and her service from 2017-19 on the Trump administration’s National Security Council, an experience she also adapted for a recent Foreign Affairs article The Kremlin’s Strange Victory: How Putin Exploits American Dysfunction and Fuels American Decline. Hill’s insider account of the Trump presidency squares with the public performance of an opportunistic and chaotic executive. He aimed for the privatization of the US government. He had no ideology beyond self-ideology and he ran government, including the military, like it was an extension of Trump Inc. For Trump, Putin was the “badass strongman” — rich and powerful and a role model for authoritarian swagger. For Hill, Trump is a counter-intelligence risk because of his vulnerabilities and the fragility of his ego.

What shocked Hill the most, with all of Trump’s talk of  “America First,” is that it was really all about him. Even with his base, it was all about what they could do for him. She concludes, as others have, that America risks becoming a populist country. Americans, she writes, need to wake up to the new and dangerous reality of rising income inequality and identity politics that fuel its political polarization and government dysfunction. She urges those in power, especially members of Congress, to honour their oath to uphold the Constitution and to speak up or the United States will endure another, perhaps more dangerous populist autocrat.

For Trump, Putin was the ‘badass strongman’ — rich and powerful and a role model for authoritarian swagger. For Hill, Trump is a counter-intelligence risk because of his vulnerabilities and the fragility of his ego.

After the While House, Hill rejoined the Brookings Institution, where today she is a senior fellow. The final part of her book — “Our House” — looks at the challenges facing America. As she told NPR, “The United States is teetering on the edge of violence here. We’re already, I think, in a cold civil war…We’ve got a chance now to turn this around. But if we don’t take it, we’re heading down that autocratic path that we’ve seen in other countries.”

Hill worries that with the fixation on China, Russia’s role in disrupting events is being eclipsed. Hill warns of the continuing threat of Russian disinformation and its efforts to destabilize and undermine trust in democracies. Their goal is to undermine the credibility of the United States government both at home and abroad.

While there is plenty for foreign policy mavens, There is Nothing for You Here is more about social policy than national security and what Americans can do to give a hand-up to their fellow citizens. Hill writes: “The greater your wealth is, the more positional authority you have; the more free time you enjoy and the larger your personal and professional networks are, the more you can do. But everyone can and should play a role in helping to break down barriers and even the playing field.” Whether you are a CEO, working or retired,  Hill lays out a series of practical actions that can contribute to dealing with inequities and social injustice. In this sense, she echoes the Biden administration’s conviction that foreign policy renewal now starts at home with the renewal of American democracy. Nation-building abroad has given way to restoring democracy at home.

Hill personifies the importance to democratic governments of independent, data-driven analysts with long and deep experience in policy development. Her book is also fun. It’s filled with telling vignettes: sad, serious, happy and funny. Like the time she wore sneakers to the Oval Office to brief President Trump. And then Ivanka walked in.

For insights into what ails America and how it can get out of the current malaise pick up There is Nothing for You Here. Better still, listen to Fiona Hill read the audio book version. Her north England accent is very pleasing to the ear.

Contributing Writer Colin Robertson is a former senior Canadian diplomat who served as Consul General in Los Angeles and as first head of the Advocacy Secretariat at the Canadian embassy in Washington. He is vice president and fellow at the Canadian Global Affairs Institute in Ottawa.