HELL AND OTHER DESTINATIONS

The former secretary of state reflects on the world that has emerged since she left office in 2001.

Following her previous memoir, Madam Secretary, and particularly the self-explanatory Fascism: A Warning (2018), Albright begins by confessing that the end of her tenure as secretary of state found her “a little overcooked.” She was worn out, frazzled, and out of shape from too little home cooking and not enough exercise. Yet, she allows, she didn’t want to retire, so, after ceding her post to Colin Powell, she examined her options: write a memoir, hit the lecture circuit, teach, establish “a small consulting firm, run primarily by women.” Never one to be pinned down to one thing, she did pretty much all of them. She founded that firm, which had a hard take on its mission: Do good, and “whatever the cost to our bottom line, we didn’t want our children to think of us as creeps.” Therefore, no lobbying for big tobacco or the gun lobby, and by her account, Albright and colleagues steered big pharma into a few beneficial measures. The lecture circuit was a touch less satisfying, as was “the endurance test known as a book tour.” But postgame diplomatic analysis turns out to be her thing, always from the perspective of one who understands that diplomacy is the art of persuading “each side to settle for part of what it wants rather than prolong a squabble by demanding all.” Naturally, she despairs at the Trumpian approach, to say nothing of the man himself (“It was one thing to crave change; quite another to choose Donald Trump to define it”). And is he a fascist? Maybe not by dictionary definition, though not for want of trying—and in any event, Albright concludes, “he has the most antidemocratic instincts of any president in modern American history.”

Dishy, as policy-wonkish memoirs go, and a pleasure for readers interested in the art of negotiation.