Zalmay Khalilzad

“Zal offers compelling insights into what it means to be of two places, and he has a fascinating and gritty story to share of the making of U.S. policy in one of the most complicated and challenging regions of the world.” —Madeleine Albright

“Zalmay Khalilzad is a special talent and colleague who not only thinks strategically, but deftly implements policies on the ground in the most challenging of circumstances. His finger-tip feel for the politics, culture, and personalities of the Middle East, combined with his understanding of the measured use of America’s capabilities, has made him one of the most effective diplomats in recent times. Zal has written a memoir that recounts events he saw firsthand with important insights for today’s challenges.” —Donald Rumsfeld

 Many Americans, including leading presidential candidates, say that the U.S. cannot — and thus should not — seek to shape events in the greater Middle East. Now, a native son of Afghanistan and American by choice, the highly respected former U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan, Iraq, and the United Nations, and the most influential and highest-ranking official of Muslim descent to serve in the U.S. government,challenges this view.

In his new book The Envoy: From Kabul to the White House, My Journey Through a Turbulent World (St. Martin’s Press; March 22, 2016), Zalmay Khalilzad delivers an inspiring, perceptive, and timely examination of the political forces and cultural currents that have shaped the Middle East. Part memoir of a political insider, part historical record, and part incisive analysis of the current state of the Middle East, The Envoy arrives in time for foreign policy discussions leading up to the 2016 election.

Khalilzad traces his path from his traditional childhood in the ancient city of Mazar-i-Sharif in Afghanistan, to his time as an exchange student in California, where he discovered a “land of opportunity” he had never known, to the halls of the White House where he served three U.S. presidents.

On 9/11, Khalilzad found he was uniquely placed to find common ground and peaceful accommodation between his two worlds and to help shape mutually beneficial relationships between the country of his birth and the country he came to love and call home. As U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan and then Iraq, he helped craft two constitutions, forge governing coalitions, and played a central role in efforts to stabilize volatile societies – and to attempt damage control when policies went awry. As U.S. Ambassador to the UN, he used his distinct personal tact to advance U.S. interests and values. Seeing firsthand the limits of conventional diplomacy in a chaotic and multicultural world, he experimented with new approaches, and he shares lessons from both the successes and the failures of these ventures in front-line mediation. The Envoy takes us behind the scenes into the riveting and at times dismaying internal debates of the George W. Bush Administration, revealing how the leaders of Afghanistan and Iraq were selected, and the efforts to manage and subdue some of the world’s most dangerous insurgents and warlords.