Iran, North Korea, Syria, Brexit, Paris Agreement, China. Prime Minister Abe, Macron, Merkel, Xi, a fellow named Putin. At a time when U.S. foreign policy – when diplomacy itself – requires as much clarity and coordination and skill as it has in decades, ours has been going through – to put it diplomatically – a major transition.
You know the headlines: Thousands of State Department positions unfilled. Budgets slashed. Tillerson fired. One day we have the world’s biggest button; the next, we’re ready to travel across the world for a summit with a leader who just months ago was a madman.
How’d we get here?
That’s what Ronan Farrow has pieced together – through exceptional storytelling and just plain reporting – in his new book “War on Peace: The End of Diplomacy and the Decline of American Influence.” Farrow did the work, talking with every living Secretary of State. And what he’s pulled together is the story of not only the shrinking, but also the militarization, of U.S. foreign policy. And to be clear: It didn’t start with Trump.
You might have heard of Farrow. He’s a bit ubiquitous and, if you ask me, extraordinary. He just won a share of the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for public service: his The New Yorker articles helped to uncover the Harvey Weinstein sexual abuse allegations and played an important part in fueling the #MeToo movement. He has been a lawyer, diplomat, journalist, and a Rhodes Scholar. He worked in the Obama State Department as Special Adviser for Humanitarian and NGO Affairs in the Office of the Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, among other roles.
And as you’ll hear, he’s also extremely gracious, which is not a bad quality, even if you’re no longer a diplomat.
John Della Volpe, Harvard Institute of Politics
Susan Demas, Inside Michigan Politics
Wayne Slater, Dallas Morning News
Kay Henderson, Radio Iowa
Adam Smith, Tampa Bay Times
Elizabeth Wilner, Kantar Media Ad Intelligence
John Maginnis, LAPolitics.com
Geoff Garin, Democratic pollster at Hart Research
Rob Christensen, Raleigh News and Observer
Skip Rutherford, Clinton School of Public Service
Anna Greenberg, Democratic pollster of the year 2013
Lynn Bartels, Denver Post
James Pindell, WMUR
Nicholas Burns, Harvard Kennedy School
Sam Youngman, Lexington Herald Leader
Jim Galloway, Atlanta Journal Constitution
Robert Costa, Washington Post reporter
Nicco Mele, Echo Ditto and Harvard Kennedy School
Robert Shrum, Democratic strategist and NYU Wagner School
Neil Newhouse, Public Opinion Strategies
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