Ezra's Bookshelf

Master of the Game

by Martin Indyk · 689 pages · ~12.5 hrs

HistoryForeign PolicyBiography & Memoir

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Martin Indyk, who served as U.S. Ambassador to Israel and later as President Obama's special envoy for Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, draws on newly available documents to reveal Henry Kissinger's intensive Middle East diplomacy during and after the 1973 Yom Kippur War. Kissinger, as Nixon's and Ford's Secretary of State, conducted shuttle diplomacy between Israel, Egypt, and Syria that stabilized the region and realigned Egypt toward the United States. Indyk shows Kissinger as a master manipulator, simultaneously deceiving and cajoling leaders to achieve results none thought possible. The book captures the personalities involved: Anwar Sadat's strategic boldness, Golda Meir's tenacity, Hafez al-Assad's inscrutability, and Kissinger's own theatrical genius. Indyk assesses both Kissinger's achievements and his limitations, particularly his decision to defer Palestinian issues rather than address them comprehensively. The author's own experience as a negotiator gives him insight into the constraints and possibilities of peacemaking. For readers interested in diplomatic history, the Middle East, or the exercise of American power, this book offers both compelling narrative and practical lessons about what skilled statecraft can and cannot accomplish.

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