★ 08/23/2021
U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger gave a “virtuoso” performance during and after the 1973 Yom Kippur War, according to this sweeping history. Indyk (Innocent Abroad), a former U.S. ambassador to Israel and President Obama’s special envoy for Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, recreates Kissinger’s high-wire success in ending the conflict between Israel and the alliance of Egypt and Syria while balancing contradictory goals: he wanted America’s ally Israel to win, but also to restrain Israel enough to make Arab countries dump their Soviet sponsors and accept the U.S. as the region’s power broker. Indyk recaps two years of Kissinger’s shuttle diplomacy as he negotiated incremental agreements that pulled Israeli forces back from some conquered territory, a canny approach, Indyk argues, that promoted regional stability and Israel’s later peace treaty with Egypt. Drawing on his firsthand acquaintance with Middle East diplomacy and many of the principals, including Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin and Jordan’s King Hussein, Indyk paints a vivid portrait of Kissinger as visionary statesman, Machiavellian operator, and occasional bumbler as he cajoles, arm-twists, and haggles over demarcation lines and diplomatic phraseology. This fascinating study illuminates both the cold logic of Kissingerian statecraft and the human factors that muddled it. Photos. (Oct.)
★ 09/01/2021
Indyk (Innocent Abroad; Bending History) reflects on Henry Kissinger's diplomacy during the pivotal years (1973–77) of U.S.-led Middle East negotiations, which sought the absence of war rather than the mirage of peace. The study is enhanced by the author's own Middle East credentials, as U.S. ambassador to Israel under Bill Clinton and envoy for Israeli-Palestinian negotiations under Barack Obama. He describes Kissinger's strategic shuttle diplomacy among all the countries with stakes in the Middle East, and tells how the largely successful Kissinger constructed a delicate diplomatic path to equilibrium centered on legitimacy more than justice (in the manner achieved by the Congress of Vienna). Based on interviews, Kissinger's papers, memoirs, and U.S. and Israeli archival documents, this study shows how the diplomat set a standard that motivated and mystified many of his successors. Indyk also frankly discusses the pros and cons of Kissinger's being the first Jewish U.S. secretary of state. Few other books address Kissinger's Middle East negotiations during these years, although Niall Ferguson's two-volume authorized biography Kissinger does that and more VERDICT Indyk's reflective review of Kissinger's Realpolitik negotiations can be a model for understanding how to subdue rather than settle international negotiations. Essential reading.—Frederick J. Augustyn Jr., Lib. of Congress, Washington, DC
★ 2021-08-24
An exhaustive study of Henry Kissinger’s “shuttle diplomacy” efforts to bring about peace—or, better, stability—in the world’s most reliable tinderbox.
“If diplomacy is the art of moving political leaders to places they are reluctant to go, then Kissinger was a master of the game,” writes Indyk, a former Clinton administration National Security Council adviser and, later, two-time ambassador to Israel. The author casts an appreciative but not uncritical eye on Kissinger and his “Machiavellian ability to deploy the levers of influence bestowed upon him by immense American power.” That power allowed him to maneuver Israel and its Middle Eastern antagonists into concessions that stepped outside the usual give-and-get mindset and instead focused on establishing a balance of powers, more or less. Indyk argues that Kissinger’s fundamental aim wasn’t peace per se, but order—order in the sense of the absence of chaos that war and enmity can bring about. Indeed, “he did not believe in peace as an achievable or even desirable objective.” Kissinger’s model, pressed not just by him, but also by many successors up until the utter failure of the Trump administration, saw some unusual advances: For one thing, Egypt no longer goes to war with Israel every few years. That model was time-bound to some degree, for it was also calculated to outmaneuver the Soviet Union while at the same time allowing it a role in that order. We should remember, Indyk observes, that Kissinger was able to persuade Israel to pull back settlements in occupied territories, something unimaginable today, and defanged an intransigent Syria. Yet, writes the author, Kissinger’s approach was not wholly successful: He failed to engage Jordan in the process, because, in the matter of its ruler, “he liked the king but he didn’t value him.” Flaws or not, Kissinger’s work, incomplete as it remains, was more effective than anything done in recent years and a project worthy of Indyk’s painstaking, always lucid analysis.
Of considerable interest to students of geopolitics, realpolitik, and the state of the world today.
A gripping history of how the United States used peacemaking to supplant the Soviet Union as the dominant foreign power in the region.”—Thomas L. Friedman, The New York Times
“Martin Indyk has written a fascinating, comprehensive and detailed study. . . . What really sets this book apart from other academic studies is that Indyk is a very unusual historian. In carrying out the traditional archival research in the United States and Israel, mastering the memoir and secondary literature, and conducting interviews with surviving participants, Indyk provides a precise rendering and a literal day-to-day account of Kissinger’s diplomacy in the region. However, having served as a former ambassador to Israel, an assistant secretary of state for Near East affairs and a special assistant to Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, Indyk is also a remarkably experienced diplomat with a deep engagement in the Middle East.”—Thomas Schwartz, The Washington Post
“When Indyk analyzes the obstacles that Kissinger overcame, he knows of what he speaks. Decades after Kissinger left the State Department, the author dealt with similar issues as U.S. ambassador to Israel and special presidential envoy. His book draws on his experiences as well as extensive research in American and Israeli archives. Most of all, Indyk captures the unique intensity of diplomacy in this region, where every gesture is treated with suspicion, and every concession is a matter of life or death. . . . Indyk’s book is a brilliant account of how the mastery of personal diplomacy can depart from the diplomat’s true mission of peace.”—Jeremi Suri, The New York Times Book Review
“Martin Indyk’s lucidly conceived and compellingly written Master of the Game: Henry Kissinger and the Art of Middle East Diplomacy is much more than a tale of long-ago diplomatic tussles in a faraway place. The issues surrounding Mr. Kissinger’s approach to foreign policy remain current, and Mr. Indyk brings to the task of examining them his years of diplomatic experience in the Clinton and Obama administrations. His book deserves careful attention.”—Walter Russell Mead, The Wall Street Journal
“Revelatory . . . [A] magisterial 570-page account of one of the most gripping diplomatic annals in modern history.”—Edward Luce, Financial Times
“[Kissinger’s] efforts are detailed exhaustively in Martin Indyk’s estimable and deeply researched new book.”—Mitchell Cohen, Politico
“An exhaustive study . . . A project worthy of Indyk’s painstaking, always lucid analysis . . . [Master of the Game is] of considerable interest to students of geopolitics, realpolitik, and the state of the world today.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“Drawing on his firsthand acquaintance with Middle East diplomacy and many of the principals . . . Indyk paints a vivid portrait of Kissinger as visionary statesman, Machiavellian operator, and occasional bumbler as he cajoles, arm-twists, and haggles over demarcation lines and diplomatic phraseology. This fascinating study illuminates both the cold logic of Kissingerian statecraft and the human factors that muddled it.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Essential reading . . . Indyk’s reflective review of Kissinger’s Realpolitik negotiations can be a model for understanding how to subdue rather than settle international negotiations.”—Frederick J. Augustyn Jr., Library Journal (starred review)
“Indyk tells this story with style and intelligence.”—Lisa Anderson, Foreign Affairs
“This is an extraordinary work of diplomatic history. It is at once a brilliant analysis of one of the pivotal moments in America’s involvement with the Middle East and at the same time a wise reflection on the art of statecraft. Martin Indyk is a seasoned diplomat and negotiator. In this book he shows himself also to be a great historian. In a crowded field, this book will stand out for a long time.”—Fareed Zakaria, author of Ten Lessons for a Post-Pandemic World
“One of America's premier diplomats and strategic thinkers, Martin Indyk, brings his decades of experience to this lively, engrossing, and eye-opening account of Kissinger's Middle East diplomacy. This is narrative and analytical history at its finest, admiring but not uncritical of America's most famous statesman. Master of the Game is must-reading for anyone interested in the most intractable of international problems.”—Robert Kagan, author of The Jungle Grows Back: America and Our Imperiled World
“This definitive history of Henry Kissinger’s Middle East peace process offers a wealth of lessons for today, not only about the challenges in that region but also about the art of diplomacy. With his deep personal experience and his intimate understanding of the colorful players involved, Indyk conveys the drama, dazzling maneuvers, and grand strategic vision that characterized Kissinger’s virtuoso negotiations.”—Walter Isaacson, author of The Code Breaker
“A noted Middle East peace negotiator in his own right, Martin Indyk excels in this account and interpretation of Henry Kissinger’s Arab-Israeli diplomacy of the 1970s. Indyk is appreciative but discerning. The book is a must read for those interested in Middle Eastern affairs, U.S. foreign policy, and the arts of diplomacy and negotiation.”—Itamar Rabinovich, author of Yitzhak Rabin: Soldier, Leader, Statesman
