Updated for the paperback through the start of Trump's second administration--Stuart Eizenstat takes readers through an insiders guide to the greatest diplomatic negotiations of the past 50 years, .

Now with a substantive afterword covering the start of the second Trump administration!

A riveting retelling of diplomatic history with praise from Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, Bertie Ahern (Ireland), Tony Blair (UK), Ehud Olmert (Israel), and more.

“A magisterial tome on the international negotiations that shaped modern American history.... Grand in scope and grounded in decades of experience, The Art of Diplomacy is a compelling work of political history aimed at the diplomatic negotiators of tomorrow.” -Foreword Reviews

Commended by Kirkus Reviews, which says Eizenstat writes with "authority and clarity of experience."

Inside the greatest diplomatic negotiations of the past 50 years
In one readable volume, diplomat and negotiator Stuart E. Eizenstat covers every major contemporary international agreement, from the treaty to end the Vietnam War to the Kyoto Protocols and the Iranian Nuclear Accord. Written from the perspective that only a participant in top level negotiations can bring, Eizenstat recounts the events that led up to the negotiation, the drama that took place around the table, and draws lessons from successful and unsuccessful strategies and tactics. Based on interviews with over 60 key figures in American diplomacy, including former presidents and secretaries of state, and major political figures abroad, Eizenstat provides an intimate view of diplomacy as today’s history. The Art of Diplomacy will be an indispensable volume to understand American foreign policy and provide invaluable insights on the art of negotiation for anyone involved in government or business negotiations. The paperback edition adds a substantive afterword that presents the challenges and opportunities for the second Trump administration.

"A former U.S. ambassador to the E.U. lays out a useful roadmap to successful international negotiations. Negotiations are a crucial part of statecraft, writes Eizenstat. In his latest book, the author aims to distill key events in U.S. negotiations into lessons for the next generation of diplomats and students. In some of the cases, Eizenstat had direct involvement; regarding others, he studied the records closely and interviewed the participants. As any diplomat will tell you, an essential ingredient in a successful negotiation is preparation. You must understand what the other side wants and how far they will go to get it. In the case of American negotiators, they must be clear about their own objectives while also maintaining the support of the Oval Office. Both sides have to be willing to give something, but they must also be able to walk away with something they can claim as a victory, if only a partial one. The point is not defeating an opponent but finding a workable consensus. Eizenstat identifies a failure to follow through on agreements as a recurring weakness of U.S. diplomacy over the decades. Sometimes, the failure arises due to domestic political circumstances; sometimes, it involves the mistaken view that adding signatures to a piece of paper is an end in itself and will solve all problems. Eizenstat hopes that future negotiators will address these shortcomings. “Successful international negotiations require putting aside historic enmities, hatreds, and prejudices, and reasoning together to reach durable, if painful, compromises,” he writes. ... He provides a valuable primer for those with an interest in this field. Eizenstat covers a lot of ground, writing with the authority and clarity of experience." - Kirkus Reviews

"A magisterial tome on the international negotiations that shaped modern American history, Stuart E. Eizenstat’s The Art of Diplomacy gets down to the brass tacks of foreign affairs. An ode to diplomacy’s power and fickleness, this book hopscotches from intimate, in-the-room portraits of what goes into diplomatic deals to expert accounts of the great American negotiators. Henry Kissinger’s “triangular diplomacy,” wedging the US between China and the Soviet Union to promote global stability, is recalled as an example of how, for better or worse, diplomacy can “usher history to places that few would have thought possible.” Unpredictability and trade-offs are a recurring theme in the cases detailed here, too. But what sets the book apart is its prioritization of the individual actors who broker international decisions. In the search for “win-win” compromises, dinners, sporting events, and all manner of creative avenues for engendering trust and goodwill become paramount. Both a primer on how to negotiate and a niche history of the last eight decades in world politics, the book includes hundreds of interviews with top-ranking officials and memories of Eizenstat’s own experiences negotiating. It transitions from what could have been done better (“desperation from the U.S. mediators…emboldened [Arafat] to take a stronger position in the negotiations” that failed at the 2000 Camp David summit) toward pragmatic advice for approaching today’s raging international crises (to achieve peace in Ukraine, Eizenstat says, “it will be essential that there be more than a fragile ceasefire or another set of ‘assurances’ that Russia can violate”) generate countless insights. These are codified into the thirteen diplomatic precepts that conclude the book. Grand in scope and grounded in decades of experience, The Art of Diplomacy is a compelling work of political history aimed at the diplomatic negotiators of tomorrow." - Foreword Reviews

"This book is an excellent resource. Particularly at a time when students are learning less about history. More seasoned professionals and older adults who may have focused less on politics or foreign policy when they were young can also benefit from Eizenstat’s comprehensive approach to telling the story of these complex foreign engagements." - Nathan's Papers: Books for CONGRESS

"These studies are often fascinating and, based as they are on extensive interviews with participants like former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and the former C.I.A. director Leon Panetta, they contain a great deal of useful research material. By far the most interesting of them is Eizenstat's firsthand account of his time negotiating with Swiss, German and Austrian authorities and commercial institutions to secure reparations and restitution for Holocaust survivors." - New York Times Book Review

"Stuart Eizenstat’s The Art of Diplomacy covers 50 years of how American diplomats helped remake the world, sharing the secrets behind successes and stumbles that remade the world. Essential reading about the art of making the impossible possible." - The Cipher Brief

"When Eizenstat is in his element, his network extends well over a topic, and the content is well moderated, the results are stunning. This accounts for most of the book’s 12 chapters, which cover everything from Kissinger to the Kyoto climate negotiations.... The Art of Diplomacy will assuredly be a fun yet distinctly informative read for anyone interested in U.S. diplomatic history or even foreign policy more generally. As a guide for future diplomats, The Art of Diplomacy also accomplishes its mission." - Washington Examiner

"It is difficult to think of a person better qualified to write a book on international negotiations than Stuart (Stu) Eizenstat, President Jimmy Carter’s chief domestic policy adviser…. The Art of Diplomacy describes in fascinating detail the major negotiations in recent years in which the US has acted either as negotiator or mediator…. This excellent book on international negotiations and American foreign policy will no doubt be a necessary addition to every public and private library." - Israel Journal of Foreign Affairs