War on peace : the decline of american influence / revised and updated Ronan Farrow

Prologue: Mahogany Row Massacre -- The last diplomats -- American myths -- Lady Taliban -- Dick -- The Mango Case -- The other Haqqani network -- Duplicity -- The frat house -- Mission: Impossible -- Walking on glass -- Farmer Holbrooke -- A little less conversation -- A-Rod -- Promise me you'll end the war -- The wheels come off the bus -- The memo -- The real thing -- Shoot first -- Ask questions never -- General rule -- Dostum, he is telling the truth -- And discouraging all lies -- White Beast -- The shortest spring -- Midnight at the ranch -- Present at the destruction -- The state of the Secretary -- The mosquito and the sword -- Meltdown -- Epilogue: The tool of first resort.

US foreign policy is undergoing a dire transformation, forever changing America’s place in the world. Institutions of diplomacy and development are bleeding out after deep budget cuts; the diplomats who make America’s deals and protect democratic interests around the world are walking out in droves. Offices across the State Department sit empty, while abroad the military-industrial complex has assumed the work once undertaken by peacemakers. Increasingly, America is a nation that shoots first and asks questions later.

In an astonishing journey from the corridors of power in Washington, DC, to some of the most remote and dangerous places on earth – Afghanistan, Somalia, and North Korea among them acclaimed investigative journalist Ronan Farrow illuminates one of the most consequential and poorly understood changes in American history. His first-hand experience as a former State Department official affords a personal look at some of the last standard bearers of traditional statecraft, including Richard Holbrooke, who made peace in Bosnia and died while trying to do so in Afghanistan.