The Global Power of Talk explores the power of negotiation and diplomacy in US foreign policy at a critical juncture in US history. Beginning with the failure of US diplomacy in relation to Saddam Hussein »s regime in the 1980s, it shows how a series of diplomatic blunders has laid the foundations for the uninhibited use of  »gun power » over  »talk power » in the last two decades. It critically examines missed opportunities in America »s handling of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in both the Clinton and George W. Bush administrations. In a provocative conclusion, the authors argue that the United States can and should negotiate with the so-called  »unengageables » like Iran, North Korea, and Al-Qaeda, in order to find ways to defuse underlying tensions in the global system.