United States foreign policy is undergoing a dramatic transformation. Institutions of diplomacy and development are reeling from deep budget cuts. The diplomats who make America's deals and protect its citizens around the world are walking out in droves. Offices across the State Department sit empty, while abroad the military-industrial complex has assumed the work once undertaken by peacemakers. In a journey from the corridors of power in Washington, DC, to some of the most remote and dangerous places on earth--Afghanistan, Somalia, and North Korea among them--investigative journalist Ronan Farrow illuminates one of the most consequential and poorly understood changes in American history. His firsthand experience as a State Department official 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. Drawing on newly unearthed documents, and richly informed by rare interviews with warlords, whistle-blowers, and policymakers--including every living secretary of state from Henry Kissinger to Hillary Clinton to Rex Tillerson--Farrow makes the case for an endangered profession.

Prologue: Mahogany Row Massacre --Part I : 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 -- Part II : Ask questions never : General rule -- Dostum: He is telling the truth and discouraging all lies -- White beast -- The shortest spring -- Midnight at the ranch -- Part III : Present at the destruction : The state of the Secretary -- The mosquito and the sword -- Meltdown -- Epilogue : The tool of first resort.