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In his riveting glimpse into the life of one of the most powerful Secretaries of State in recent years, Washington Post diplomatic correspondent Glenn Kessler provides not only a revealing look at Condoleezza Rice but a rich portrait of the Bush administration's controversial foreign policy regime. From her grievous errors in judgment as national security advisor to her notable influence over the president as Secretary of State, Rice has not gone unnoticed during her rise to power. But, as an intensely private person, she has--despite endless media attention--remained a mystery. As the first critical examination of Rice's skills as policy-maker, politician and manager, this definitive biography explains not only her rise to power, but the pivotal role she has played in our nation's history.
Full of candor as well as honesty, The Confidante shows unseen moments in Rice's life and of her frequently divisive performance during one of the most tumultuous foreign-policy periods in U.S. history. Drawing on personal interviews with Rice, an intimacy afforded to Kessler as one of the few reporters granted the opportunity to travel with her, Kessler takes readers inside the secret meetings Rice has held with foreign leaders and even her private conversations with President Bush. With access to all of Rice's top aides and sources in many overseas governments, Kessler also provides dramatic new information about one of the most secretive administrations in U.S. history. He shows how Rice molded herself into the image of a globe-trotting diplomatic super star, negating memories of her past failures. He exposes new details about her secret role in Israel's withdrawal from Gaza, her maneuvers around government bureaucracy to strike a pivotal nuclear-energy deal with India, her persuasion of Bush to support a dramatic gesture to Iran, her failure to prevent the North Korean nuclear test, and her struggle to contain the devastating war between Israel and Lebanon. This brilliantly written book reveals not only her public and private humiliation of foreign officials but also how her charm and grace have been successful assets in repairing fractured relations overseas.
Condoleezza Rice remains today and in the future one of the most alluring, controversial, and ultimately influential decision makers in the United States. With this captivating work, Kessler shows what traits could solidify her shot at greatness or what cracks in her hard veneer could send her career hurtling to ruin.
- Sales Rank: #839601 in Books
- Published on: 2007-09-04
- Released on: 2007-09-04
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 9.95" h x 1.12" w x 5.85" l, 1.10 pounds
- Binding: Hardcover
- 304 pages
From Publishers Weekly
At the end of President George W. Bush's first term, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice was prepared to leave politics and return to an academic post at Stanford University before she was drafted by Bush to be secretary of state. Two years later, polls showed American voters regarded her as the most powerful woman in the country. In this gripping and intelligent account, Washington Post correspondent Kessler chronicles those two years, drawing on his firsthand experiences traveling with Rice as well as an impressive array of documents and interviews. Kessler organizes the book by region, vividly dramatizing Rice's travels and negotiations overseas—the chapter including her visits to Khartoum and Darfur is a standout—while providing thoughtful analysis and historical background to put these vignettes in context. Kessler praises Rice for a number of successes, including her role in weakening a secret CIA prison system in Europe, but he also criticizes her failure to provide a coherent foreign policy vision and her weakness at implementation and follow-up. This balanced, detailed text offers invaluable insight into Rice's rise to power, though its exclusive focus on foreign policy may limit its appeal. (Sept.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
With her long relationship with the Bush family (having served in the previous Bush administration) and ideological sympathy with the current President Bush, Rice has gained a position as trusted confidante. Washington Post diplomatic correspondent Kessler, who has traveled extensively with Secretary of State Rice, explores her career, personality, and relationship with Bush and other members of his administration. Drawing on interviews with Rice, he presents a portrait of a steely and forceful woman, capable of great charm, with the savvy to stand up to powerful political figures at home and abroad. Although Kessler examines her background for clues to her outlook on race, the book is predominantly focused on Rice's triumphs and foibles in foreign relations. He examines the policies she supported as national security advisor that later came back to haunt her as secretary of state. He offers details of Rice's involvement in tense negotiations with North Korea and Iran regarding nuclear weapons, efforts to encourage greater democracy—particularly for women—in the Middle East, and negotiations of a truce between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon. She had agreed to take the position on the condition that the Bush administration would work toward creating a Palestinian state, a process that she undermined while she served as national security advisor and one that would continue to elude her. Finally, he explores her management style, lack of a coherent foreign policy vision, and desperate efforts to save Bush's foreign policy legacy and her own. Bush, Vanessa
Review
"A tour de force. I have followed Rice for years, yet reading this book I feel like I only now understand her."--Thomas E. Ricks, author of Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq "Kessler, in this timely and important book, identifies the principal weakness of Rice's stewardship as the absence of any 'coherent foreign policy vision,' especially regarding the Middle East. The calamitous consequences for America of this shortcoming are likely to be felt for years to come."--Zbigniew Brzezinski, national security advisor, 1977-1981
"Glenn Kessler is a tough, independent beat reporter of the old school. His chronicle of Condoleezza Rice's turn as Secretary of State is meticulous and fair, but it provides a devastating account of how Rice's diplomacy often rested on wish and illusion, and was finally overwhelmed by the Bush Administration's failed foreign policies."--Steve Coll, author of Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001
"Glenn Kessler has amassed a wealth of new material about Condoleezza Rice and the people around her. If you want to get beyond the image-makers and find out what Condoleezza Rice has actually been doing as secretary of state, this is the right book for you."--James Mann, Johns Hopkins University and author of Rise of the Vulcans: The History of the Bush War Cabinet
"As foreign policy tutor, security adviser, and now as secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice has stood at the center of George Bush's foreign policy from day one. Glenn Kessler provides a fair and balanced assessment of how Rice's actions and inactions in these first incarnations made her job of guiding foreign policy now so much more difficult. A masterful treatment that is bound to stand the test of time."--Ivo Daalder, Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution and co-author of America Unbound: The Bush Revolution in Foreign Policy
Most helpful customer reviews
15 of 17 people found the following review helpful.
A Seat at the Diplomatic Table
By Steven Hirsch
Kessler's thesis is two-fold: (1) Rice has spent her years as Secretary of State saddled with the impossible task of trying to undo the damage that she did in Bush's first term as a National Security Advisor who fell under the sway of the administration's neoconservative ideologues. (2) Despite keeping up the most frenetic travel schedule of any Secretary of State since Kissinger, Rice's performance has been a series of missed opportunities attributable to a lack of any coherent strategic vision. As a reporter "on the plane" with Rice, Kessler is able to give you a detailed and psychologically nuanced look at Rice and the other players, foreign and domestic. It is a finely observed rendition of a disaster in the making, made all the more poignant by the fact that Rice herself is portrayed as a brilliant, talented, strong, energetic, attractive, and even charismatic person who might have played a constructive role in the world had she attached herself to a more competent mentor. As a reporter, Kessler stops short of articulating what he thinks an appropriate foreign-policy agenda might have looked like and tends to judge Rice's performance in relation to the goals that the she and the Administration set for themselves. But the book's agnosticism is part of its attraction, as it gets you thinking about your own foreign-policy values and commitments. What would a good response to the Hezbollah-Israeli war have looked like? What role should democracy and human rights play in foreign policy--and does an excessive focus on those values make a country end up looking hypocritical as idealism comes into contact with reality and inevitably becomes compromised? When is refusing to negotiate directly with a dangerous outlaw state like North Korea a useful tool, and when does it become an impediment to achieving important goals, like nuclear nonproliferation? Kessler's book doesn't answer these questions, but raises them in such an intriguing way as to ensure that it will still be attracting readers long after Rice has left the public stage--whenever that may be.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful.
The Diplomatic Fashion Runway
By Jas. Murphy
No one denies that Condi Rice is a talented and hard-working diplomat, but Kessler's excellent book chronicles a series of missed diplomatic opportunities during her tenure, inviting one to consider how effective Rice has been as Secretary of State during Bush's second term. Rice initially built a strong and brilliant team under deputy secretary Robert Zoellick, and some of the success stories Kessler describes took place while Zoellick was at the helm.
Rice had a public profile and was popular with the public during her time on the NSC, but once she ascended to role of Secretary of State, she sought systematically to raise her public profile, and to do so largely through a series of media splashes accompanied by high fashion statements. Rice focused heavily on image. Perhaps the most salient example of a woman in power who used fashion to great effect is Margaret Thatcher, who was a relentless implementer; Kessler demonstrates that once Rice launched initiatives, her execution and implementation were weak, and apparently style trumped substance. Rice does dress the part, carries it off well, and clearly enjoys being a leading fashionista. Dean Acheson also dressed extremely well, but this was probably secondary to his diplomatic skill, and in any case his sartorial statements were not on prominent media display during his trips abroad, although I imagine had he appeared for dinner in Saudi Arabia, as Rice did, wearing flowing white silk with gold pinstripes threaded through the fabric, that would have changed quickly. But if the most innovative fashion statement conservatives can muster is the adoption the solid-color necktie look pioneered by James Baker, then we should welcome Rice's attempts to raise the bar.
While Rice is known to be extremely bright, she appears to compensate for a lack of strategic intellectual firepower with a highly developed sense of performance. Splendid performances can go a long way in diplomacy, it seems, but Rice's tenure has been marked by unlucky breaks and wrong-footed initiatives which Kessler does an outstanding job of covering, while simultaneously guiding us through some of the major foreign policy challenges of the last few years with skill and brevity. The book's title, however, suggests that a more detailed examination of the Rice-Bush relationship would be on offer, with insight into how she became so influential with Bush. Here the book falls short, but is nonetheless an essential read for anyone seeking to understand Rice's leadership, or lack of it, during a few turbulent years. Interestingly, as she was provost of a highly complex university and managed a stable of world-class talent, she seems to have brought no managerial skill at all to the running of the Department of State, neglecting to tap the vast resources available there and demonstrating her tacit acceptance of the Bush style of a closed inner circle that doesn't look beyond its own resources or mental models.
Rice brings to the table an outstanding set of personal and intellectual qualities, but if Kessler's book is accurate, she may not have the chops to take on a future leadership role in electoral politics. One can only wish her well in the remaining months of her term, but Kessler provides little comfort that major breakthroughs are to be expected, particularly in the mid-east, where Rice has declared her intent to bring peace and stability, and realize the President's stated goal of fostering a Palestinian state. Even now, her role in managing other issues, such as those presented by Iran, seems less than significant.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful.
Five Stars
By Bill Ivester
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I'd say it's essential reading for anyone who follows current events on any level. The writing is both direct and engaging and the author provides background and context in each chapter without overcomplicating. I really felt like a Washington insider with access to fascinating accounts of behind-the-scenes negotiations. Kessler's treatment of Rice is even-handed; he highlights her dedication, drive, poise and intelligence but also holds her accountable for failed outcomes and missteps. Reading the New York Times is a whole new experience now - I have a much deeper understanding of the issues and people in the news. Highly recommended!
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