Two recent books explore the enduring dichotomy between diplomats and soldiers and pose questions for the future of effective diplomacy.
How can an Israeli PM mobilize U.S. politicians against a U.S. president committed to Israeli interests? Beinart's provocative answer: U.S. Jewish leaders commandeered Jewish organizations and turned them into agencies for Likud interests.
Rockefeller, Lindsay, Scranton—just three of the “moderates” who failed to keep the GOP from the clutches of Goldwater and Nixon. Geoffrey Kabaservice laments their defeat with a wistfulness that obscures from him their true frustration.
The English-language news channel of Al Jazeera consistently is first on the scene of Mideastern developments, and its journalists provide smart analysis of global events. It may be today’s most influential television-news operation.
After WWI, Britain and France made the Arab world the object of history, not its subject. James Barr’s new book shows that the Middle East was born crazy. Later misunderstandings and manipulations were laid atop well-worn grooves.
Jonathan Steinberg’s new biography depicts a Bismarck rife with contradictions. Still, it comes dangerously close to conflating the mad Junker’s cautious conservatism with the führer’s nihilism. There is more to Germany than destiny alone.
The Social Animal is an instruction manual for politicians, the chief virtue of which is that it is practically useless. Faced with geopolitical and economic upheaval, the New York Times columnist offers a reassuring refuge from reality.
Gandhi cuts a saintly figure in the modern imagination. Joseph Lelyveld’s controversial biographical account presents a more dispassionate perspective of the Father of the Indian Nation. An exaggerated creation myth is revealed.
The human-rights movement is nothing more than an unattainable utopian dream used to justify moral ends through ruinous wars of intervention.
Whether it's global warming, racism or deficit spending, beware of the experts you're listening to. They know far less than they claim.
