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A review by misterfix
War on Peace: The End of Diplomacy and the Decline of American Influence by Ronan Farrow
4.0
For an insider critique this book was exceptional in it's willingness to hold all parties and individuals accountable to the decline and failures of US diplomacy. Sure the author does not ask all of the hard hitting questions of subjects but he does a fair job and illustrates his point with specific case studies from key players. I wish the book was longer and that he went into greater detail on each of the cases and of course I want him to dig deeper but my guess is he would not have gotten access if he had.
It's no great stretch to state that diplomacy is dead, what's more critical and generally only superficially dealt with, is that diplomacy has always been rigged and exploitive. The end result of any negotiation that the US is engaged in essentially is tied to favor the US at the cost of sovereign or world stability regarding those we are negotiating with. To truly appreciate the dynamics and dare I say, truth behind the various scenarios discussed in this book one should seek out books that focus exclusively on this topic and are written outside the beltway and free of funding; be it educational, grants, etc.
Therefore, if you are looking for a progressive, hard hitting analysis of US diplomacy this is not the book instead view this as a quality primer that provides a CENTRIST, insider perspective on the situation. Given how awful the US track record is on diplomacy there is no shortage of abysmal case studies and the author has only just skimmed the surface in presenting this broad overview.
It's no great stretch to state that diplomacy is dead, what's more critical and generally only superficially dealt with, is that diplomacy has always been rigged and exploitive. The end result of any negotiation that the US is engaged in essentially is tied to favor the US at the cost of sovereign or world stability regarding those we are negotiating with. To truly appreciate the dynamics and dare I say, truth behind the various scenarios discussed in this book one should seek out books that focus exclusively on this topic and are written outside the beltway and free of funding; be it educational, grants, etc.
Therefore, if you are looking for a progressive, hard hitting analysis of US diplomacy this is not the book instead view this as a quality primer that provides a CENTRIST, insider perspective on the situation. Given how awful the US track record is on diplomacy there is no shortage of abysmal case studies and the author has only just skimmed the surface in presenting this broad overview.