I’m really only familiar with Ronan Farrow in his current incarnation as a reporter, so I was surprised to learn that journalism was actually his second career – before that, he worked in the State Department as part of the Office of the Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The book is a dive into the State Department and America’s unsteady history of diplomacy. While the gutting of State under the Trump administration is of course part of the narrative, we look at how the military has been given increased primacy in America’s foreign relations for decades. The lack of interest in diplomatic solutions is a long-term problem that didn’t start with Trump and won’t end with him either.
The book covers a wide range of topics, from the efforts to reach a diplomatic solution to the Afghanistan war to the recent history of American-Pakistani relations to the way diplomacy changed after the Cold War ended. There are heaps of really great interviews here as well – the author talks to every living former Secretary of State, as well as visit to an Afghan warlord that would be funny if it wasn’t so scary. Farrow’s own career as a State Department staffer is only really looked at in the first third of the book, but that insider perspective flows through the whole book.
A slight criticism: Farrow writes about his former boss Richard Holbrooke in a tremendously even-handed fashion. So much so that when he briefly mentions his clearly meaningful emotional connection to the man it comes as a surprise – the rest of the book really provides no clue as to their relationship. I can’t help but feel that this might have strengthened the book.
A really interesting look into a kind of obscure topic, definitely bolstered by Farrow’s skill as a reporter.
