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MASTER OF THE GAME

Name: MASTER OF THE GAME
Author: Martin Indyk
ISBN: 978-1-101-94754-8

HENRY KISSINGER AND THE ART OF MIDDLE EAST DIPLOMACY

by Martin Indyk ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 5, 2021

Of considerable interest to students of geopolitics, realpolitik, and the state of the world today.

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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.

Pub Date: Oct. 5, 2021

ISBN: 978-1-101-94754-8

Page Count: 672

Publisher: Knopf

Review Posted Online: Aug. 23, 2021

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2021

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THE 48 LAWS OF POWER

by Robert Greene ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 1998

If the authors are serious, this is a silly, distasteful book. If they are not, it’s a brilliant satire.

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The authors have created a sort of anti-Book of Virtues in this encyclopedic compendium of the ways and means of power.

Everyone wants power and everyone is in a constant duplicitous game to gain more power at the expense of others, according to Greene, a screenwriter and former editor at Esquire (Elffers, a book packager, designed the volume, with its attractive marginalia). We live today as courtiers once did in royal courts: we must appear civil while attempting to crush all those around us. This power game can be played well or poorly, and in these 48 laws culled from the history and wisdom of the world’s greatest power players are the rules that must be followed to win. These laws boil down to being as ruthless, selfish, manipulative, and deceitful as possible. Each law, however, gets its own chapter: “Conceal Your Intentions,” “Always Say Less Than Necessary,” “Pose as a Friend, Work as a Spy,” and so on. Each chapter is conveniently broken down into sections on what happened to those who transgressed or observed the particular law, the key elements in this law, and ways to defensively reverse this law when it’s used against you. Quotations in the margins amplify the lesson being taught. While compelling in the way an auto accident might be, the book is simply nonsense. Rules often contradict each other. We are told, for instance, to “be conspicuous at all cost,” then told to “behave like others.” More seriously, Greene never really defines “power,” and he merely asserts, rather than offers evidence for, the Hobbesian world of all against all in which he insists we live. The world may be like this at times, but often it isn’t. To ask why this is so would be a far more useful project.

If the authors are serious, this is a silly, distasteful book. If they are not, it’s a brilliant satire.

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1998

ISBN: 0-670-88146-5

Page Count: 430

Publisher: Viking

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1998

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GENERAL BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | PHILOSOPHY & RELIGION | PSYCHOLOGY | HISTORICAL & MILITARY

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A HISTORY OF THE WORLD IN TWELVE SHIPWRECKS

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A HISTORY OF THE WORLD IN TWELVE SHIPWRECKS

by David Gibbins ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 2, 2024

Gibbins combines historical knowledge with a sense of adventure, making this book a highly enjoyable package.

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A popular novelist turns his hand to historical writing, focusing on what shipwrecks can tell us.

There’s something inherently romantic about shipwrecks: the mystery, the drama of disaster, the prospect of lost treasure. Gibbins, who’s found acclaim as an author of historical fiction, has long been fascinated with them, and his expertise in both archaeology and diving provides a tone of solid authority to his latest book. The author has personally dived on more than half the wrecks discussed in the book; for the other cases, he draws on historical records and accounts. “Wrecks offer special access to history at all…levels,” he writes. “Unlike many archaeological sites, a wreck represents a single event in which most of the objects were in use at that time and can often be closely dated. What might seem hazy in other evidence can be sharply defined, pointing the way to fresh insights.” Gibbins covers a wide variety of cases, including wrecks dating from classical times; a ship torpedoed during World War II; a Viking longship; a ship of Arab origin that foundered in Indonesian waters in the ninth century; the Mary Rose, the flagship of the navy of Henry VIII; and an Arctic exploring vessel, the Terror (for more on that ship, read Paul Watson’s Ice Ghost). Underwater excavation often produces valuable artifacts, but Gibbins is equally interested in the material that reveals the society of the time. He does an excellent job of placing each wreck within a broader context, as well as examining the human elements of the story. The result is a book that will appeal to readers with an interest in maritime history and who would enjoy a different, and enlightening, perspective.

Gibbins combines historical knowledge with a sense of adventure, making this book a highly enjoyable package.