The journalist and former U.S. State Department official explores the decline of American diplomacy and traditional statecraft, the abdication of global leadership, and how the work of peacemaking has been taken over by the military-industrial complex.

Contents -- Prologue: mahogany row massacre -- The last diplomats -- American myths -- Lady taliban -- Dick -- The mango case -- The other haqqani network -- Duplicity -- The frat house -- Mission: impossible -- Walking on glass -- Farmer holbrooke -- A little less conversation -- A- rod -- Promise me you'll end the war -- The wheels come off the bus -- The memo -- The real thing -- Shoot first -- Ask questions never -- General rule -- Dostum, he is telling the truth -- And discouraging all lies -- White beast -- The shortest spring -- Midnight at the ranch -- Present at the destruction -- The state of the secretary -- The mosquito and the sword -- Meltdown -- Epilogue: the tool of first resort -- Acknowledgments -- Notes -- Index.