Talks & Entertainment

This program does not include a book signing. All books will be pre-signed by the author.

Last year, Ronan Farrow sparked conversation around the world by exposing Harvey Weinstein’s long-hidden history of sexual assault in an article in The New Yorker. In War on Peace: The End of Diplomacy and the Decline of American Influence, he turns his sharp eye to a new kind of power: American diplomacy.

In an account ranging from DC to Afghanistan, Pakistan, and North Korea in the years since 9/11, Farrow illuminates one of the most consequential and poorly understood changes in American history. His first-hand experience working in the State Department affords a personal look at some of the last standard-bearers of traditional statecraft, including Richard Holbrooke, who made peace in Bosnia and died while trying to do so in Afghanistan. Farrow’s narrative is richly informed by interviews with whistleblowers, policymakers, and a warlord, from Henry Kissinger to Hillary Clinton. Diplomacy, Farrow argues, has declined after decades of political cowardice, short-sightedness, and outright malice―but it may just offer America a way out of a world at war.

In conversation with Mary Louise Kelly, co-host of All Things Considered and former national security correspondent for NPR.