The Envoy
From Kabul to the White House, My Journey Through a Turbulent World
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3.8 • 5 Ratings
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
Zalmay Khalilzad grew up in a traditional family in the ancient city of Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan. As a teenager, Khalilzad spent a year as an exchange student in California, where after some initial culture shocks he began to see the merits of America's very different way of life. He believed the ideals that make American culture work, like personal initiative, community action, and respect for women, could make a transformative difference to his home country, the Muslim world and beyond. Of course, 17-year-old Khalilzad never imagined that he would one day be in a position to advance such ideas.
With 9/11, he found himself uniquely placed to try to shape mutually beneficial relationships between his two worlds. As U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan and Iraq, he helped craft two constitutions and forge governing coalitions. As U.S. Ambassador to the UN, he used his unique personal diplomacy to advance U.S. interests and values. In The Envoy, Khalilzad details his experiences under three presidential administrations with candid behind-the-scenes insights. He argues that America needs an intelligent, effective foreign policy informed by long-term thinking and supported by bipartisan commitment.
Part memoir, part record of a political insider, and part incisive analysis of the current Middle East, The Envoy arrives in time for foreign policy discussions leading up to the 2016 election.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This diplomatic autobiography from the highest-ranking Muslim diplomat in President George W. Bush's administration reflects a mix of subtle, nuanced thinking and apparent disingenuousness. Khalilzad, who was born in Afghanistan, received his doctorate from the University of Chicago, where his adviser told him that in strategic diplomacy, "Mirror imaging projecting our way of thinking onto others was a surefire way to misread an opponent." While avoiding that paradigm served him well at the RAND Corporation, think-tank logic ran up against dogmatic policies in the Bush White House after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The book displays Khalilzad's knowledge and agility as a senior National Security Council staffer who worked on post-Taliban Afghanistan policy and, as of December 2002, served as Bush's "special presidential envoy" to the Iraqi opposition. However, it's difficult to reconcile his accounts of scoring tactical successes with difficult counterparts, such as former Afghan president Hamid Kharzai, with the sorry results of American military intervention and postwar influence in the Middle East. While Khalilzad never directly criticizes Bush, he does suggest that the president's thinking was often simplistic, and his observation that "the United States fell far short of its aspirations in Afghanistan and Iraq" runs counter to the company-man tone otherwise found throughout the book.
