gilda_elise

American diplomacy is under siege. Offices across the State Department sit empty, while abroad the military-industrial complex has assumed the work once undertaken by peacemakers. We’re becoming a nation that shoots first and asks questions later.

In an astonishing account ranging from Washington, D.C., to Afghanistan, Pakistan, and North Korea in the years since 9/11, acclaimed journalist and former diplomat Ronan Farrow illuminates one of the most consequential and poorly understood changes in American history. His firsthand experience in the State Department affords a personal look at some of the last standard-bearers of traditional statecraft, including Richard Holbrooke, who made peace in Bosnia and died while trying to do so in Afghanistan. Farrow’s narrative is richly informed by interviews with whistleblowers, policymakers, and a warlord, from Henry Kissinger to Hillary Clinton. Diplomacy, Farrow argues, has declined after decades of political cowardice, short-sightedness, and outright malice—but it may just offer America a way out of a world at war.

Given the state of our government at the moment, the book is something of a must-read. While Farrow often cites diplomats whose endeavors may have made things worse, it becomes clear that we are much worse off without them. Their decline seems to go hand-in-hand with our own in regards to our influence around the world. We now offer a stick instead of an olive branch, as our military steps into the void left, and their own power multiplying exponentially.

Though Trump’s presidency has exacerbated the problem, it certainly didn’t start it. 9/11 seems to have turned us into a country of cowards, seeing danger behind every corner, and more willing to throw the military at the problem than try to work things out. With that way of thinking, it’s no surprise that presidents turned more to generals than diplomats, starting us on the road we’re still traveling.

Mount TBR 2019 Book Links

Links are to more information regarding each book or author, not to the review.

1. The Outsider
2. War on Peace: The End of Diplomacy and the Decline of American Influence

BOOK BINGO

1. Fantasy, Scifi, Paranormal - The Outsider by Stephen King
15. Title is at Least Six Words Long - War on Peace: The End of Diplomacy and the Decline of American Influence by Ronan Farrow