Introducing the 2013 Gelber Prize finalists: today’s nominees, Michael R. Gordon and Bernard E. Trainor

Over the next few weeks, we’re going to be featuring one interview per day with the authors of the books nominated for this year’s Lionel Gelber Prize, a literary award for the year’s best non-fiction book in English on foreign affairs. The award is sponsored by the Munk School of Global Affairs at the University ...

By , a former associate editor at Foreign Policy.
613767_130215_gelberendgame2.jpg
613767_130215_gelberendgame2.jpg

Over the next few weeks, we're going to be featuring one interview per day with the authors of the books nominated for this year's Lionel Gelber Prize, a literary award for the year's best non-fiction book in English on foreign affairs. The award is sponsored by the Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto in cooperation with Foreign Policy. The interviews are conducted by Rob Steiner, former Wall Street Journal correspondent and director of fellowships in international journalism at the Munk School.

Over the next few weeks, we’re going to be featuring one interview per day with the authors of the books nominated for this year’s Lionel Gelber Prize, a literary award for the year’s best non-fiction book in English on foreign affairs. The award is sponsored by the Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto in cooperation with Foreign Policy. The interviews are conducted by Rob Steiner, former Wall Street Journal correspondent and director of fellowships in international journalism at the Munk School.

Today’s authors are Michael R. Gordon and Gen. Bernard E. Trainor. Here’s the jury’s citation for The Endgame: The Inside Story of the Struggle for Iraq, from George W. Bush to Barack Obama:

The nature of Barack Obama’s thought-process and leadership is well illuminated in The Endgame by Michael R. Gordon and General Bernard E. Trainor. This is the tale of a delicate dance out of Iraq by American forces, beginning with George W. Bush’s support of a ‘surge’ of U.S. forces into a growing civil war, and the decision by Barack Obama to leave but a skeleton of U.S. forces behind. In between, the authors document the many shifts in policy and people on the American side, even as Iraq’s government teeters between uneasy compromise and incipient collapse. The relevance of this book to events in Afghanistan today is striking.

Listen to the interview here.

Joshua Keating was an associate editor at Foreign Policy. Twitter: @joshuakeating

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