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Innocent Abroad: An Intimate Account of American Peace Diplomacy in the Middle East
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.
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.
512 pages, Hardcover
First published January 6, 2009
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
May 10, 2015
As the winds of the Arab Spring wind down and current Secretary of State John Kerry makes his push for peace in the Middle East, he would do well to learn from the lessons of the Clinton administration, the last real attempt by the U.S. to bring about a lasting peace in the region. Fortunately for us, Martin Indyk, two-time U.S. ambassador to Israel and key Middle East advisor during the Clinton years, has written a blow-by-blow account of Pres. Clinton's herculean efforts to to bring about a region-wide peace agreement through hard-nosed diplomacy. In a book of around 400-plus pages of narrative text, it is surprising how much detail Mr. Indyk is able to convey. He writes about Pres. Clinton's drive for peace deals between Israel and Syria, Jordan, and Palestine, which produced a road map for peace over the West Bank and a genuine peace deal with Jordan, and a "dual containment" strategy in regards to Iran and Iraq. He also writes extensively about how these strategies ultimately broke down by the end of Pres. Clinton's term in office. The ultimate aim of this book is draw lessons from those times to help inform future negotiators how to proceed in the Middle East. It is a fascinating account that can also be bogged down in too much diplomatic minutiae at times. Mr. Indyk tries to strike that delicate balance between the two succeeds right up to the the Camp David talks, where things slow down to a crawl. It is both fascinating and boring and should be taken in small doses. This is a fine book for those interested in trying to understand the complexities of the Middle East peace process.
March 3, 2015
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March 17, 2009
Very thorough look at Clinton's peace diplomacy in the Middle East. I knew the basic overview of it but since I was only in middle school/high school there was a lot of it I didn't remember or didn't grasp at the time.
January 2, 2011
Indyk, a former Australian univeristy professor turned senior US diplomat, gives a thorough, highly detailed and occasional partisan accounting of the Clinton Administration's multiple attempts to progress the peace process in the Middle East. Indyk was in the middle of it all, first as a member of the National Security Council then as Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs and finally as US Ambassador to Israel.
This book is a very detailed recounting and there are several enlightening -- or, to be honestly blunt, eye-popping -- accounts of what happened during those years. One good example: According the Indyk, the Clinton White House seemed to be unaware of what was actually going on in Oslo, Norway between the Palestinians and Israelis. Talk about an intelligence failure. While they knew there were some low-level discussions taking place they never paid close enough attention to know there was something far more serious going on.
Beyond this, Indyk makes it abundantly clear how complicated getting anything done in the Middle East is beyond complicated. Internal politics amongst the Israelis, then the Palistineans, then the Syrians, and then amongst any combination of Arab nations - a constant hall of mirrors with razor sharp edges.
This book is a very detailed recounting and there are several enlightening -- or, to be honestly blunt, eye-popping -- accounts of what happened during those years. One good example: According the Indyk, the Clinton White House seemed to be unaware of what was actually going on in Oslo, Norway between the Palestinians and Israelis. Talk about an intelligence failure. While they knew there were some low-level discussions taking place they never paid close enough attention to know there was something far more serious going on.
Beyond this, Indyk makes it abundantly clear how complicated getting anything done in the Middle East is beyond complicated. Internal politics amongst the Israelis, then the Palistineans, then the Syrians, and then amongst any combination of Arab nations - a constant hall of mirrors with razor sharp edges.
July 8, 2011
A good and comprehensive overview of American diplomatic engagement with Israel during the Clinton administration. I certainly don't agree with Indyk on everything (his bias toward the Israeli government is obvious, even if he takes pains to give the appearance of being evenhanded), but I give him points for being thoughtful and the book is well-written.
This is a decent introduction to the intricacies of these issues, warts and all.
This is a decent introduction to the intricacies of these issues, warts and all.
September 30, 2013
fascinating all the ins and outs of diplomacy. Very informative about the Middle East.
February 23, 2016
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews