George Packer's 'Our Man' is a biography of Richard Holbrooke, the diplomat who brokered the Dayton Accords ending the Bosnian War, rendered in a novelistic style that captures both his outsized personality and the tragic arc of American foreign policy ambitions. Packer gained access to Holbrooke's diaries and papers, revealing the private doubts behind the public confidence of a man who believed he could solve any problem through force of will. The book follows Holbrooke from his early career in Vietnam, where his belief in American power began to form, through his greatest triumph at Dayton, to his final assignment in Afghanistan, where he died still trying to negotiate an end to a war that proved beyond any individual's capacity to resolve. Packer writes with empathy for his subject's genuine gifts, including an ability to read situations and people that made him an exceptional negotiator, while documenting the arrogance and careerism that limited his effectiveness and alienated colleagues. The portrait extends beyond one man to American foreign policy itself in the post-Cold War era, with its conviction that problems had solutions and America could provide them. Readers will find both compelling biography and meditation on the limits of American power.