Purchase
An Intimate Account Of American Peace Diplomacy In The Middle East
Simon & Schuster
January 2009
On Sale: January 6, 2009
512 pages ISBN: 1416594299 EAN: 9781416594291 Hardcover
Add to Wish List
Non-Fiction
Making peace in the long-troubled Middle East is likely
to be one of the top priorities of the next American
president. He will need to take account of the important
lessons from past attempts, which are described and analyzed
here in a gripping book by a renowned expert who served
twice as U.S. ambassador to Israel and as Middle East
adviser to President Clinton. Martin Indyk draws on
his many years of intense involvement in the region to
provide the inside story of the last time the United States
employed sustained diplomacy to end the Arab-Israeli
conflict and change the behavior of rogue regimes in Iraq
and Iran. Innocent Abroad is an insightful
history and a poignant memoir. Indyk provides a fascinating
examination of the ironic consequences when American naïveté
meets Middle Eastern cynicism in the region's political
bazaars. He dissects the very different strategies of Bill
Clinton and George W. Bush to explain why they both faced
such difficulties remaking the Middle East in their images
of a more peaceful or democratic place. He provides new
details of the breakdown of the Arab-Israeli peace talks at
Camp David, of the CIA's failure to overthrow Saddam
Hussein, and of Clinton's attempts to negotiate with Iran's
president. Indyk takes us inside the Oval Office, the
Situation Room, the palaces of Arab potentates, and the
offices of Israeli prime ministers. He draws intimate
portraits of the American, Israeli, and Arab leaders he
worked with, including Israel's Yitzhak Rabin, Ehud Barak,
and Ariel Sharon; the PLO's Yasser Arafat; Egypt's Hosni
Mubarak; and Syria's Hafez al-Asad. He describes in vivid
detail high-level meetings, demonstrating how difficult it
is for American presidents to understand the motives and
intentions of Middle Eastern leaders and how easy it is for
them to miss those rare moments when these leaders are
willing to act in ways that can produce breakthroughs to
peace. Innocent Abroad is an extraordinarily
candid and enthralling account, crucially important in
grasping the obstacles that have confounded the efforts of
recent presidents. As a new administration takes power, this
experienced diplomat distills the lessons of past failures
to chart a new way forward that will be required reading.
Comments
No comments posted.
Registered users may leave comments.
Log in or register now!
|