Washington Diplomacy:

About the Book

This collection grew out of a monthly column called "People of World Influence," which journalist John Shaw began writing for The Washington Diplomat in 1997. Over five years, Shaw sat down with 66 of the most consequential figures in global affairs and pressed them on the issues that defined a turbulent era. The result is a fascinating set of portraits that captures the foreign policy world both before and after September 11, 2001.

The range of voices here is remarkable. Henry Kissinger and Zbigniew Brzezinski reflect on strategy and power. Nelson Mandela talks about post-apartheid South Africa. Joe Biden argues for reforming the United Nations and curbing weapons of mass destruction. Historians Michael Howard, Niall Ferguson, and David Fromkin put current crises in longer perspective. Intelligence figures like Brent Scowcroft, Jim Woolsey, and congressional committee chairs Bob Graham and Porter Goss wrestle with the terrorism threats that were already worrying insiders well before the Twin Towers fell. Notably, Shaw's interview with House International Affairs Chairman Henry Hyde took place on September 10, 2001, the day before the attacks.

Shaw also profiles war crimes prosecutors and investigators including Diane Orentlicher, David Scheffer, Richard Goldstone, and Pierre Prosper, reflecting how international justice became one of the defining challenges of the 1990s. Rather than pushing a single theory of world affairs, Shaw lets these thinkers and practitioners speak plainly in their own words. For anyone interested in American foreign policy, diplomacy, and how global power really works, this is an unusually direct window into the minds of the people shaping it.