The Envoy: From Kabul to the White House, My Journey Through a Turbulent World

by Zalmay Khalilzad

Overview

Zalmay Khalilzad grew up in a traditional family in the ancient city of Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan. As a teenager, Khalilzad spent a year as an exchange student in California, where after some initial culture shocks he began to see the merits of America's very different way of life. He believed the ideals that make American culture work, like personal initiative, community action, and respect for women, could make a transformative difference to his home country, the Muslim world and beyond. Of course, 17-year-old Khalilzad never imagined that he would one day be in a position to advance such ideas.

With 9/11, he found himself uniquely placed to try to shape mutually beneficial relationships between his two worlds. As U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan and Iraq, he helped craft two constitutions and forge governing coalitions. As U.S. Ambassador to the UN, he used his unique personal diplomacy to advance U.S. interests and values. In The Envoy, Khalilzad details his experiences under three presidential administrations with candid behind-the-scenes insights. He argues that America needs an intelligent, effective foreign policy informed by long-term thinking and supported by bipartisan commitment.

Part memoir, part record of a political insider, and part incisive analysis of the current Middle East, The Envoy arrives in time for foreign policy discussions leading up to the 2016 election.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250345400
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	03/22/2016
Pages:	336
Sales rank:	706,754
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.78(d)

About the Author

ZALMAY KHALILZAD is a counselor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and president of Khalilzad Associates. Previously, he worked in the administrations of Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and George W. Bush and served as the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan and Iraq and U.S. permanent representative to the United Nations.

Table of Contents

Preface From Kabul to Baghdad Kabul, June 20, 2005 1

Part I Early Life

1 Poppy Fields and Tree-Lined Boulevards Afghanistan, 1951-1965 9

2 Journey to the Other Side of the World The United States-1966-1967 26

3 Into the Cauldron of Politics Kabul and Beirut, 1968-1974 35

4 Aspiring Strategist Chicago and New York City, 1974-1980 45

5 The Mujahedeen and the Halls of Power New York and Washington, D.C, 1980-1989 57

6 Containing Saddam Washington, D.C, 1988-1992 67

7 Crafting Grand Strategy for a Unipolar World Washington, D.C, 1991-1992 76

8 One Nation's Disintegration, One Man's Destiny Washington, D.C, 1993-2001 83

Part II Bush Administration

9 The Calm before the Storm Washington, D. C, January-September 2001 93

10 America under Attack Washington, D.C, September 2001 105

11 A Quest for Leaders In Tyranny's Shadow Washington, D.C, and Bonn, Germany, September-December 2001 114

12 Return to Kabul Kabul and Washington, D.C, January-June 2002 128

13 Loya Jirga Kabul, June-July 2002 141

14 Eyes Elsewhere Washington, D.C, December 2002-February 2003 151

15 Planning Postwar Iraq inside Iraq Ankara, Turkey, and Salahuddin, Iraq, February 2002 161

16 Iraq: From Liberation to Occupation Washington, D.C, and Baghdad, March-May 2003 168

17 Accelerating Success in Afghanistan Washington, D.C, May-November 2003 176

18 Ambassador Kabul, November 2003-January 2004 189

19 Builders versus Spoilers Afghanistan, 2003-2005 198

20 Fruits of Democracy Kabul, 2004-2005 212

21 Preparing for Iraq Washington, D.C, November 2004-July 2005 225

22 Repairing Iraq Baghdad, July-December 2005 237

23 Forging a National Unity Government Baghdad, December 2005-May 2006 254

24 Struggling to Break the Cycle of Sectarian Violence Baghdad, 2006-2007 266

25 Permanent Representative to the United Nations New York, 2007-2009 284

Part III America in the World

26 A More Dangerous World 2016 and Beyond 307

Afterword 322

Acknowledgments 324

Index 326

Editorial Reviews

03/14/2016
This diplomatic autobiography from the highest-ranking Muslim diplomat in President George W. Bush's administration reflects a mix of subtle, nuanced thinking and apparent disingenuousness. Khalilzad, who was born in Afghanistan, received his doctorate from the University of Chicago, where his adviser told him that in strategic diplomacy, "Mirror imaging—projecting our way of thinking onto others—was a surefire way to misread an opponent." While avoiding that paradigm served him well at the RAND Corporation, think-tank logic ran up against dogmatic policies in the Bush White House after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The book displays Khalilzad's knowledge and agility as a senior National Security Council staffer who worked on post-Taliban Afghanistan policy and, as of December 2002, served as Bush's "special presidential envoy" to the Iraqi opposition. However, it's difficult to reconcile his accounts of scoring tactical successes with difficult counterparts, such as former Afghan president Hamid Kharzai, with the sorry results of American military intervention and postwar influence in the Middle East. While Khalilzad never directly criticizes Bush, he does suggest that the president's thinking was often simplistic, and his observation that "the United States fell far short of its aspirations in Afghanistan and Iraq" runs counter to the company-man tone otherwise found throughout the book. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

**One of Parag Khanna's Ten Great Global Reads for Summer 2016**

"There have been a number of memoirs by Bush administration officials, but Mr. Khalilzad’s is far and away the most reflective, honest and compelling." —The Washington Times

"For anyone desiring a detailed chronicle of America’s nation-building efforts after the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, Mr. Khalilzad’s book should be required reading." —Wall Street Journal

"One of the most intriguing individuals to play a leading role in the Bush-era wars is Zalmay Khalilzad, a polished diplomat who was the most senior Muslim in the White House at the time of the 9/11 attacks." —The Financial Times

"A chronological, straightforward, occasionally disturbing history of the challenges leading to the current morass." —Kirkus Reviews

“It was fascinating to watch Zal operate in Afghanistan: he knew the country better than any of the foreigners who were in the city and he cared for it as much as any Afghan did. He knew Iraq better than almost all the American officials who were responsible for the decisions whose consequences led to the present situation in the country and the region. Khalilzad's book tells his story with an honest detachment which is refreshingly different from the self-serving, biased accounts we have been used to getting." —Lakhdar Brahimi

"The Envoy is the story of the remarkable life journey of one of our nation's great diplomats. Riveting in its telling, inspiring in its stories, and insightful in its commentary, The Envoy is a book that should find its way onto the bookshelf of anyone who cherishes the American dream and cares about what is happening in our world today." Michael Morell, former Acting and Deputy Director of the CIA and author of the bestselling book about terrorism, The Great War of Our Time

"Zal Khalilzad was the premier American diplomate of the last decade, serving as the top U.S. envoy to Afghanistan, Iraq and the United Nations. He made and has now written an important contribution to our post 9/11 history. Zal's is also a uniquely American story, of someone born in a distant land and raised in a different culture who embraced and then represented with distinction his adopted land." —James Dobbins

“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 H. Rumsfeld

"A remarkably candid account by a man who was at the eye of the storm of U.S. foreign policy over the first decade of the 21st century. Ambassador Zal Khalilzad understands as few others do the complex interplay between politics and policy in Washington, and what it takes to implement those decisions in some of the toughest environments around the world." —Lt. General David Barno (ret.), former head of Combined Forces Command-Afghanistan

“I'm so pleased that Zal has finally written this long overdue book. I'm not given to cultural arguments, but there was something about Zal's effectiveness in the Middle East that seemed attributable to his comfort with the ways of the region — and better yet, the region's comfort level with him. His perspective is invaluable.” —Condoleezza Rice

“Zalmay Khalilzad and I were both born abroad, became American, and worked as academics and practitioners of U.S. foreign policy. He has always operated with a positive vision about what America represents in the world. 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

From the Publisher

2016-01-05
A Middle East adviser recounts the role of the United States in the region over the past three decades. Former ambassador to Afghanistan, Iraq, and the United Nations, Khalilzad chronicles a long career in international politics. Born in Afghanistan, the author came to America in 1966 as a high school exchange student. Although he first experienced culture shock—he had never seen a shower or an elevator—he quickly acclimated and later leapt at the chance to do graduate work at the University of Chicago. Middle East politics became his field of expertise, and he was pursuing an academic career at Columbia University when the Jimmy Carter administration tapped him to become an adviser on Afghanistan. In 1986, he joined the State Department's Policy Planning Staff under Ronald Reagan. During the George H.W. Bush administration, Khalilzad left government to work at the RAND Corporation, helping to establish a center for Middle East policy studies during his eight-year tenure. Most of this revealing memoir concerns the George W. Bush administration, in which the author worked beginning in May 2001. The author acknowledges the "steep learning curve" facing that administration; no one on the foreign policy team "had a feel for the histories, cultures, and emotions that drove the politics of the broader Muslim world." Khalilzad portrays Bush and Condoleezza Rice as articulate and thoughtful, but he frequently became frustrated by Donald Rumsfeld and by the power struggles among officials at the Pentagon and State Department. In formulating policy for Afghanistan, which was devastated by the Soviet-Afghan War, Khalilzad advised intervention to rebuild the country's institutions to prevent its alignment with extremists. "Afghanistan was our first critical test," he writes, but there, and in Iraq, rivalries, corruption, and a weak sense of civic responsibility, coupled with inconsistent American policy, undermined progress and stability. Critical of Barack Obama, the author advises a strong military presence as the U.S. promotes democratic ideals. A chronological, straightforward, occasionally disturbing history of the challenges leading to the current morass.

Kirkus Reviews