A White House that shuns diplomacy

Nowhere was this inconsistency more evident than in Afghanistan. Obama doubled-down by committing tens of thousands more troops to show he was no wimp, only to set a date for a drawdown to show he was no warmonger. Marines died; few cared. He appointed Holbrooke as his point man only to ensure that he "never received the authority to do diplomacy."

Diplomacy died. Serious negotiation with the Taliban and involving Iran in talks on Afghanistan's future — bold steps that carried a domestic political price — were shunned. Nasr concludes on Afghanistan: "We are just washing our hands of it, hoping there will be a decent interval of calm — a reasonable distance between our departure and the catastrophe to follow."

In Pakistan, too nuclear to ignore, the ultimate "frenemy," Nasr observed policy veering between frustrated confrontation and half-hearted attempts to change the relationship through engagement. "The crucial reality was that the Taliban helped Pakistan face down India in the contest over Afghanistan," Nasr writes. America was never able to change that equation. Aid poured in to secure those nukes and win hearts and minds: Drones drained away any gratitude. A proposed "strategic dialogue" went nowhere. "Pakistan is a failure of American policy, a failure of the sort that comes from the president handing foreign policy over to the Pentagon and the intelligence agencies."

The Dispensable Nation is a brave book. Its core message is: Diplomacy is tough and carries a price, but the price is higher when it is abandoned.

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