The Road to the Dayton Accords A Study of American Statecraft

In this groundbreaking book, Derek Chollet provides unprecedented insights into the high-stakes diplomacy behind the historic 1995 Dayton agreement that ended the war in Bosnia--the most devastating conflict in Europe since the Second World War. Based on still unopened U.S. government archives and hours of interviews, The Road to the Dayton Accords is a fast-paced history that focuses on the key players, decisions and events on the difficult journey to peace, taking the reader from the killing fields of the Balkans to tense meetings in the Oval Office to dramatic negotiations on a secluded Air Force base in Dayton, Ohio. Exhaustively researched and candidly written, this is a behind the scenes portrait of statecraft at the highest levels. The book sheds new light on one of the Clinton administration's most important-and lasting--diplomatic achievements, which proved to be a critical turning point for America's relationship with Europe and for Bill Clinton's presidency. With novelistic detail, this book also deepens our understanding of the course and conduct of modern American foreign policy, especially over U.S. efforts to solve the world's most difficult conflicts--a challenge that still dominates the news today.

Derek Chollet is a fellow in the International Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He previously served as foreign policy adviser to U.S. Senator John Edwards and in the State Department during the Clinton Administration.