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A review by reidob
War on Peace: The End of Diplomacy and the Decline of American Influence by Ronan Farrow
4.0
Ronan Farrow is a natural. He has the skill to take on this complex and difficult subject and give it the treatment it deserves. And he does so with such ease and in a conversational tone that I never felt as if I was slogging through something I really should read.
The essential premise here is that America and the world are better off when there is a balance between military might and diplomatic maneuvering. Farrow's premise (which he backs up not only with excellent journalism but personal experience) is that in this balance has fallen heavily on the side of military intervention and that this tendency accelerated exponentially after September 11, 2001. But the emphasis on militarism has not made this country or the world more secure and has rather served to achieve the opposite.
Farrow is not naive enough to believe that diplomacy alone can achieve the kind of peace all people of this world deserve. For better or for worse, one must have a strong military presence to bring others to the negotiating table. But he makes a strong case for the idea that long-term security can only be achieved through a strong State Department and their ability to reach out to their counterparts in other countries. No matter how seemingly depraved or combative, nearly all people want peace in their lives and their countries and are often willing to compromise to achieve that goal.
But he also argues quite persuasively that the problem is not just that the State Department and embassies are decimated, but that in the current environment young people see no future in the Foreign Service, so fewer and fewer are using their education and energy to enter into that service. Which means that even if the desire to reverse the imbalance were to arise in our society, it would take a generation or more to restore diplomacy to its former glory.
I also thought Farrow's portrayal of his mentor, Richard Holbrooke, was moving and amusing, even-handed and affectionate without being cloying. This relationship and the singlemindedness Holbrooke brought to all his dealings lend a personal, fascinating tone to the first half of the book.
I found very little to criticize in War on Peace, but did find a few of the more personal observations a bit off-putting and even a touch catty. How people dress is not usually very relevant, and I'm not sure I see the point of letting us know about the heavy fall of dandruff on the shoulders of one of the people he is interviewing. But these are truly minor failings in what I consider to be a major contribution to our understanding of foreign affairs in this country and around the world.
The essential premise here is that America and the world are better off when there is a balance between military might and diplomatic maneuvering. Farrow's premise (which he backs up not only with excellent journalism but personal experience) is that in this balance has fallen heavily on the side of military intervention and that this tendency accelerated exponentially after September 11, 2001. But the emphasis on militarism has not made this country or the world more secure and has rather served to achieve the opposite.
Farrow is not naive enough to believe that diplomacy alone can achieve the kind of peace all people of this world deserve. For better or for worse, one must have a strong military presence to bring others to the negotiating table. But he makes a strong case for the idea that long-term security can only be achieved through a strong State Department and their ability to reach out to their counterparts in other countries. No matter how seemingly depraved or combative, nearly all people want peace in their lives and their countries and are often willing to compromise to achieve that goal.
But he also argues quite persuasively that the problem is not just that the State Department and embassies are decimated, but that in the current environment young people see no future in the Foreign Service, so fewer and fewer are using their education and energy to enter into that service. Which means that even if the desire to reverse the imbalance were to arise in our society, it would take a generation or more to restore diplomacy to its former glory.
I also thought Farrow's portrayal of his mentor, Richard Holbrooke, was moving and amusing, even-handed and affectionate without being cloying. This relationship and the singlemindedness Holbrooke brought to all his dealings lend a personal, fascinating tone to the first half of the book.
I found very little to criticize in War on Peace, but did find a few of the more personal observations a bit off-putting and even a touch catty. How people dress is not usually very relevant, and I'm not sure I see the point of letting us know about the heavy fall of dandruff on the shoulders of one of the people he is interviewing. But these are truly minor failings in what I consider to be a major contribution to our understanding of foreign affairs in this country and around the world.