Bob Woodward's new book 'War' invites readers into a world of back-channel diplomacy

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4.2 • 672 Ratings

🗓️ 4 November 2024

⏱️ 12 minutes

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Summary

It's been 50 years since the publication of All the President's Men, but journalist Bob Woodward says he hasn't changed his approach to political reporting. His new book, War, aims to bring readers as close as possible to the rooms where globally consequential diplomacy takes place. War focuses on three major conflicts and has already made headlines, detailing new information about the continued relationship between former President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. In today's episode, Woodward speaks with NPR's Scott Detrow about a high-stakes call between Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and his Russian counterparts about the potential use of nuclear weapons in Ukraine, the conflict between Israel and Iran, and Woodward's observations on Vice President Harris' role in foreign diplomacy.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, it's Empire's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbong. It is election week, and polling shows that
0:08.4	the issue people are thinking about most this season is the economy. But there are also
0:14.8	multiple conflicts going on across the globe, and whoever wins will have to deal with them. And it's easy to fall into
0:22.6	the trap of thinking about these conflicts theoretically. But journalist Bob Woodward is out with a new
0:28.4	book titled War, which covers the behind-the-scenes negotiations in the conflicts between Russia and
0:34.0	Ukraine, as well as Israel versus Hamas. And in this conversation with NPR Scott Detrow, Woodward makes you really confront the
0:42.1	life and death consequences of these negotiations and lays out the stakes of the election.
0:48.3	That's ahead.
0:49.9	In the U.S., national security news can feel far away from daily life.
0:54.7	Distant wars, murky conflicts, diplomacy behind closed doors.
0:59.3	On our new show, Sources and Methods.
1:01.3	NPR reporters on the ground bring you stories of real people,
1:05.1	helping you understand why distant events matter here at home.
1:08.9	Listen to sources and methods on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.
1:14.7	Legendary journalist Bob Woodward's New Book War, like so many of his books about the
1:18.9	American presidency over the last half century, is generating headlines. Like the one about the
1:24.3	COVID test machine that then-president Donald Trump sent Russian president
1:28.1	Vladimir Putin in the early days of the pandemic.
1:31.4	And new revelations from Bob Woodward about Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin.
1:34.5	That Trump secretly sent to Putin scarce COVID testing machines for his personal use.
1:44.5	Or the seven secret phone calls Woodward reports that Trump had with Putin after Trump left office.
1:50.3	The two have spoken as many as seven times since he left the White House.
	...

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