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A review by jedwardsusc
War on Peace: The End of Diplomacy and the Decline of American Influence by Ronan Farrow
5.0
This is a masterful single-volume account of the steady shift away from the State Department and toward the Pentagon in US foreign policy. Farrow defends the vital importance of diplomacy while recounting how administration after administration--of both parties--have chipped away at diplomatic resources and excluded diplomatic experts while relying more and more on military voices and solutions. The Trump administration's full-scale gut of the State Department is the latest and most extreme iteration of this trend, but one of Farrow's strengths is that he situates Trump's hyper-militarism in a wider historical context of anti-diplomatic and pro-military thinking. The result is, as Farrow says, "the story of a life-saving discipline torn apart by political cowardice" (xxxiii).
Military options devalue relationship building and prioritize the quickest paths to "stability" and "order." Essentially, everything looks like a nail. The costs of this approach are high, and the results, Farrow argues, can be clearly seen in a steady stream of costly and damaging US foreign policy failures in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Egypt, Iran, North Korea, and elsewhere. These failures have empowered local warlords, sparked rashes of extra-judicial killings, and turned US weapons on civilians.
Some of Farrow's chapters--particularly those related to his former boss Richard Holbrooke--take a little too long to reach their point. But this is a relatively small critique of an impressive and timely work. Definitely recommend.
Military options devalue relationship building and prioritize the quickest paths to "stability" and "order." Essentially, everything looks like a nail. The costs of this approach are high, and the results, Farrow argues, can be clearly seen in a steady stream of costly and damaging US foreign policy failures in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Egypt, Iran, North Korea, and elsewhere. These failures have empowered local warlords, sparked rashes of extra-judicial killings, and turned US weapons on civilians.
Some of Farrow's chapters--particularly those related to his former boss Richard Holbrooke--take a little too long to reach their point. But this is a relatively small critique of an impressive and timely work. Definitely recommend.