Foreign Affairs - 03.2020 - 04.2020

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Recent Books


172 «¬® ̄°±² ³««³°® ́


The United States


Jessica T. Mathews


The Ambassadors: America’s Diplomats on
the Front Lines
BY PAUL RICHTER. Simon &
Schuster, 2019, 352 pp.

I


n a book that straddles history and
biography, Richter follows the
careers o¤ four extraordinary U.S.
diplomats: Ryan Crocker, Robert
Ford, Anne Patterson, and J. Christo-
pher Stevens, who between them held
14 ambassadorships and deputy chie’
o’ mission posts in the greater Middle
East. They served mostly in war-torn
states, such as Afghanistan, Iraq,
Libya (where Stevens was killed in an
attack on the U.S. mission in Ben-
ghazi in 2012), and Syria. Both the
George W. Bush and the Obama
administrations recognized the unique
knowledge and abilities o’ these
diplomats, asking them to return again
and again to dangerous, chaotic
situations in the region. The ambassa-
dors practiced what Richter calls a
“new diplomacy o’ the front lines,”
working closely with their military
counterparts. Even so, all four fre-
quently had to decide whether to
continue working in service o’ what
they considered “disastrous policy
blunders,” and as o¾cials in Washing-
ton often ignored their advice. Richter
embeds the stories o’ the four diplo-
mats in a broader narrative that
follows “oundering U.S. policies in
the Middle East. His book is at once

bombing and its aftermath through the
experiences o’ many o’ those involved,
including the writers Victor Klemperer
and Kurt Vonnegut, who had recently
been taken prisoner by the Germans in
the Battle o’ the Bulge. McKay ends on
a positive note, describing the recon-
struction o’ the city and its more recent
role in eorts at reconciliation.


The Taliban at War, 2001–2018
BY ANTONIO GIUSTOZZI. Hurst,
2019, 384 pp.


Giustozzi provides a detailed and dense
account o’ the Taliban’s resilience. He
shows how the group persevered and
regrouped after both the U.S.-led
invasion o’ Afghanistan in 2001 and the
“surge” o’ U.S. troops in 2009, under
the Obama administration. Based on
many conversations with former and
current members o’ the organization,
this study is an important contribution
to the history o’ the American-led war
in Afghanistan. Giustozzi explores how
the Taliban ¥nanced their campaigns,
raised the morale o’ their members, and
managed the tensions among a variety
o’ distinct factions within the group.

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