War on Peace: The End of Diplomacy and the Decline of American Influence.
***Investigative journalist Ronan Farrow, who trained as an attorney, worked for the United Nations in Sudan and then as a State Department adviser during the Obama administration. He won a Pulitzer Prize for his New Yorker coverage of the sexual assault allegations against Harvey Weinstein. He is the son of Woody Allen and Mia Farrow. War on Peace is his first book.
THE TOPIC: Farrow, who began working for the State Department early in the Obama administration, recounts how that agency has been gutted in recent years and how militarization has replaced diplomacy as an overall strategy. This was the case even before Trump's administration. More power was given to the Pentagon and the CIA than to diplomatic missions. Farrow focuses on his time as an aide to diplomat Richard Holbrooke, who was a special representative in Afghanistan and in Pakistan. Holbrooke died in 2010; his last words were, reputedly, "You've got to stop this war in Afghanistan." Farrow traces the history of American diplomacy and sees force supplanting peaceful approaches to conflict resolution.
Norton. 432 pages. $27.95. ISBN: 9780393652109
Globe & Mail (Canada) ****
"This volume is part meditation and part memoir, and as a result Mr. Farrow is a prominent figure in his jeremiad. But the theme that courses through this book is the triumph of the military perspective over the diplomatic perspective, coming to a crescendo in the Trump years." DAVID SHRIBMAN
The Atlantic ****
"Farrow spoke to every living former secretary of state and a host of other civil servants, policy experts, and at least one prominent U.S.-backed warlord. The resulting picture of American foreign policy is both grimmer and in some ways more hopeful than any other recent portrait of the State Department: grimmer because the decline in American diplomacy long predates the Trump administration, and hopeful because it reveals how past presidents have acted to arrest that decline." MATT PETERSON
Publishers Weekly ****
"Farrow blends analysis with vivid reportage; his firsthand recollections of State Department icons, such as the brilliant, blustering Richard Holbrooke, make diplomacy feel colorful and dramatic rather than gray and polite. [He] doesn't quite demonstrate how diplomacy would succeed in quagmires like Afghanistan, but his indictment of the militarization of American foreign policy is persuasive."
NY Times Book Review ***
"In a sense, Farrow is telling a story with a well-known ending but a surprise beginning. ...Yet real as these dynamics [of sidelining diplomats] are, Farrow's account of them comes with some omissions that skew the broader picture." DANIEL KURTZ-PHELAN
Telegraph (UK) **
"Farrow is not lacking in self-esteem.... He might well write a book worth reading if he ever gets round to undertaking a more mature analysis of America's recent reassertion of its power." CON COUGLIN
CRITICAL SUMMARY
Farrow believes "the Trump era [has] squandered diplomatic leadership by dint of chaos and blunder." Diplomats' overseas assignments are being shortened, such that the pool of experienced Foreign Service professionals grows ever shallower. Serious mistakes have been made in U.S. dealings with Pakistan and with Afghanistan, he argues, as a result of "massive inefficiency and a lack of accountability." Some critics thought his "a sad and sober book of dogged research and persuasive argument" (Globe & Mail). However, others found it to be one-sided and slight. "Ultimately, I suspect this book is not aimed at foreign affairs veterans such as myself, but at a younger generation who might appreciate some of its more obscure pearls of wisdom," the Telegraph reviewer concluded.
By Ronan Farrow
 Printer friendly
 Cite/link
 Email
 Feedback
| |
| Title Annotation: | general |
|---|---|
| Publication: | Bookmarks |
| Article Type: | Book review |
| Date: | Jul 1, 2018 |
| Words: | 579 |
| Previous Article: | Sharp: The Women Who Made an Art of Having an Opinion. |
| Next Article: | I Am, I Am, I Am: Seventeen Brushes with Death. |
| Topics: | |