markgalassi reviewed Confront and conceal by David E. Sanger
Review of 'Confront and conceal' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
This book is an in-depth description and analysis of the Obama administration's efforts in the world's hot spots.
The scope of the book seems impressive; I will give here the list of topics and then discuss what I thought of the writing of the book.
Afghanistan and Pakistan -- the inherited situation, the mistakes before finally forging their own approach, the acceptance of a "good enough" solution.
Iran -- the stuxnet virus, the difficult collaboration with Israel.
Drones -- the drawbacks of an otherwise-successful approach.
The Arab spring -- how the administration tried to improve its predictions of uprisings, but before they were ready to analyze these things better the revolutions started. How they walked the fine line of support versus standing back; comparison of Libya and Syria.
China and North Korea -- how to return the US to having a role in Asia, how to understand the interface we …
This book is an in-depth description and analysis of the Obama administration's efforts in the world's hot spots.
The scope of the book seems impressive; I will give here the list of topics and then discuss what I thought of the writing of the book.
Afghanistan and Pakistan -- the inherited situation, the mistakes before finally forging their own approach, the acceptance of a "good enough" solution.
Iran -- the stuxnet virus, the difficult collaboration with Israel.
Drones -- the drawbacks of an otherwise-successful approach.
The Arab spring -- how the administration tried to improve its predictions of uprisings, but before they were ready to analyze these things better the revolutions started. How they walked the fine line of support versus standing back; comparison of Libya and Syria.
China and North Korea -- how to return the US to having a role in Asia, how to understand the interface we have to China through their leader, how to deal with North Korea.
Here are the reasons I thought the book was excellent:
sources: the author is a veteran New York Times journalist who has many sources and a lot of experience in finding foreign policy and war information. This is coupled with access to the wikileaks revelations. The result give an impressive feeling for what must have been happening in the administration's deliberations.
writing style: journalists often write very good and readable books, and this is no exception. It is long but quite gripping, and I read it with great pleasure. He also does a great job of taking complex sequences of events and collecting them into a clear picture. Instead of sacrificing the complexity of the story, he works hard to explain it well.
* analysis and insight: I am not an expert, so the 10% rule might apply here, but I found the analyses and the resulting insights to be quite convincing.
