On Sale: Feb 7, 2006
Page Count: 256 pages
Publisher: PublicAffairs
ISBN-13: 9781586484200

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$25.99 CAD

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Peter Cutler is a respected Princeton professor living a quiet academic life when an old college friend makes him an offer he can’t refuse: The position of foreign policy adviser for Democratic presidential candidate Wayne Kent. Cutler takes the job and eagerly jumps into the political fray. When Kent wins the election, Cutler’s thrilled to find himself Under Secretary of State. But he soon discovers that the power politics of Washington are a far cry from the comforts of university life. In order to survive, he must participate in a ruthless tug-of-war in which everyone struggles to promote his own agenda. As Cutler becomes increasingly absorbed in the underhanded tactics of bureaucratic survival and the charms of an old girlfriend working in the Pentagon, his initial foreign policy goals recede into the background. Ultimately, the allure and hypocrisy of political life cause him to alienate everyone he cares about—and to make one life-altering political miscalculation.

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“An entertaining tale of good intentions gone awry in the nation’s capital.”
The Washington Post
“A beautiful portrait of a government official who is torn apart by his work . . . The narrator’s struggles to balance his work and his family, his lust and his wife, the risk of nuclear terrorism and the risk of his father dying alone, make for a superb, moving novel, the kind you really don’t want to put down.”
Nicholas Kristof, The New York Times
“Sophisticated insight into what kinds of issues matter in Washington and how people in power battle them out. Nye takes us inside the State Department, Pentagon, and White House and gives us a chance to watch and listen. We need more writers like Nye to tell us what it’s really like.”
The Washingtonian

Joseph S Nye Jr

About the Author

Joseph S. Nye, Jr. (1937-2025) served as dean of the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and as Chairman of the National Intelligence Council and Assistant Secretary of Defense in the Clinton administration. He is the author of several books, including Soft Power and Bound to Lead.

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