Global Power of Talk: Negotiating America's Interests

This book explores the uses and limits of the power of negotiation and diplomacy in U.S. foreign policy at a critical juncture in U.S. history. Beginning with the failure of U.S. diplomacy to nip Saddam Hussein's ambitions in the bud prior to the first Gulf War, it argues that a series of diplomatic blunders laid the foundations for the uninhibited use of 'œgun power'� over 'œtalk power'� for the next two decades. It critically examines missed opportunities in America's handling of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in both the Clinton and George W. Bush administrations. Looking ahead, it shows how the United States should negotiate with 'œunengageables'� like Iran, North Korea, and terrorists wherever they occur.

Fen Osler Hampson is the Chancellor's Professor and Director of The Norman Paterson School of International Affairs (NPSIA), Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada. I. William Zartman is the Jacob Blaustein Professor Emeritus at the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) of The Johns Hopkins University in Washington, and member of the Steering Committee of the Processes of International Negotiation (PIN) Program at Clingendael, The Netherlands.