A behind the scenes look at 50 years of US diplomacy. From Vietnam in the 1960s to the Afghanistan of this decade, James Dobbins was on the frontline of American diplomacy and working to advance U.S. national interests in some of the world's most difficult and troubled situations. In Foreign Service, Dobbins takes the reader behind the scenes at the Vietnam peace talks, the darkest dates of the Cold War, the reunification of Germany, the collapse of the Soviet Union and the U.S. military interventions in Afghanistan, Bosnia, Haiti, Kosovo, and Somalia. He provides a thoughtful insider's account of all these ventures, analyzes the sources of both success and failure, and provides incisive portraits of many of the chief actors. Presidents Clinton, Bush, and Obama turned repeatedly to Dobbins as a diplomatic trouble-shooter with the right instincts and experience to help find creative solutions for seemingly irresolvable problems. Now readers can benefit from his insights, learning that, while specific situations in world affairs are different, the basic principles and techniques for defending U.S. interests on the global stage remain constant.
James Dobbins served as Assistant Secretary of State for Europe, Special Assistant to the President for the Western Hemisphere, Special Adviser to the President and Secretary of State for the Balkans, Ambassador to the European Community, and special envoy for Somalia, Haiti, Bosnia, and Kosovo, and Afghanistan. He holds the Distinguished Chair for Diplomacy and Security at the RAND Corporation.
Foreword, Robert B. Zoellick Preface 1. Pacific Youth 2. Apprenticeship 3. The Seventh Floor 4. Provincial Interlude 5. On Turtle Bay 6. Upstairs 7. Downstairs 8. Postgraduate Studies 9. Missile Diplomacy 10. A Small Town in Germany 11. A World Reordered 12. And Disordered Anew 13. From Community to Union 14. Black Hawk Down 15. Entering Haiti 16. Exiting Haiti 17. A Lesson in Divided Government 18. Hemispheric Interlude 19. War in Kosovo 20. Peace in Kosovo 21. The Fall of Milosevic 22. Mending Transatlantic Relations 23, A New Administration 24. Another War, Another Assignment 25. Losing the Peace: Afghanistan 26. Losing the Peace: Iraq 27. Afghanistan Again 28. Reflections Index
Dobbins's inside stories of policy debates over Somalia, Rwanda, Haiti, the Balkans, Iraq and Afghanistan are insightful and illuminating. And he is admirably candid in describing some of his own crisis-management advice..."- Survival, 60.6 (2018)
