US foreign policy has undergone a troubling change in recent decades. Drawing on newly uncovered materials, his own experience in the State Department, and interviews with warlords, whistleblowers and every living Secretary of State including Henry Kissinger and Hillary Clinton, Farrow analyses the systematic dismantling of the diplomatic service. Under successive presidents, in his view, a shoot-first policy has replaced the skilled, patient statecraft that once secured America’s interests across the globe.