03473cam a2200409 i 450000100090000000300080000900500170001700700030003400800410003701000170007802000300009502000270012504000360015204100080018804200080019604300120020405000280021608200150024410000480025924500860030725000190039326400370041230000590044933600210050833700250052933800230055450400670057750505260064452015550117060000510272565000410277665000500281765100490286765100540291665100440297065100490301420716796BJBSDDR20250624131936.0ta181018s2021    enka     b    001 0aeng c  a  2018042715  a9781787385528 (paperback)  a1787385523 (paperback)  aLBSOR/DLCbengerdacLBSORdDLC  aeng  apcc  an-us---14a002 E 840.8bB967b 202100a327.7300921 aBurns, William J.q(William Joseph),d1956-14aThe back channel :bamerican diplomacy in a disordered world /cWilliam J. Burns.  aFirst edition. 1aLondon :bHurst & Company,c2021  a501 pages : billustrations (black and white) ;c22 cm  atext2rdacontent  aunmediated2rdamedia  avolume2rdacarrier  aIncludes bibliographical references (pages 471-476) and index.0 aApprenticeship : the education of a diplomat -- The Baker years : shaping order -- Yeltsin's Russia : the limits of agency -- Jordan's moment of transition : the power of partnership -- Age of terror : the inversion of force and diplomacy -- Putin's disruptions : managing great power trainwrecks -- Obama's long game : bets, pivots, and resets in a post-primacy world -- The Arab Spring : when the short game intercedes -- Iran and the bomb : the secret talks -- Pivotal power : restoring America's tool of first resort.  a"Ambassador William J. Burns is the most distinguished and admired American diplomat of the last half century. Over the course of four decades, he played a central role in the most consequential diplomatic episodes of his time--from the bloodless end of the Cold War to the collapse of post-Cold War relations with Putin's Russia, from post-9/11 tumult in the Middle East to the secret nuclear talks with Iran. Upon his retirement in 2014, Secretary John Kerry said Burns belonged on "a very short list of American diplomatic legends," alongside George Kennan. In The Back Channel, Burns recounts, with novelistic detail and incisive analysis, some of the seminal moments of his career. Drawing on a trove of newly declassified cables and memos, he gives readers a rare inside look at American diplomacy in action. His dispatches from war-torn Chechnya and Qaddafi's bizarre camp in the Libyan desert and his warnings of the "Perfect Storm" that would be unleashed by the Iraq War will reshape our understanding of history--and inform the policy debates of the future. Burns sketches the contours of effective American leadership in a world that resembles neither the zero-sum Cold War contest of his early years as a diplomat nor the "unipolar moment" of American primacy that followed. Ultimately, The Back Channel is an eloquent, deeply informed, and timely story of a life spent in service of American interests abroad. It is also a powerful reminder, in a time of great turmoil, of the enduring importance of diplomacy"--cProvided by publisher.14aBurns, William J. q(William Joseph), d1956-  0aDiplomatszUnited StatesvBiography. 4aDiplomáticoszEstados Unidos vBiografía  0aUnited StatesxForeign relationsy1945-1989. 4aEstados UnidosxRelaciones exterioresy1945-1989. 0aUnited StatesxForeign relationsy1989- 4aEstados UnidosxRelaciones exterioresy1989-