Having recently returned from a visit to Iraq — a country still suffering from a reckless decision made more than 15 years ago by the US government — the timing could not have been better for me to read Stephen Walt’s new book.

Walt makes a compelling case for a more humble, restrained and balanced US foreign policy and points to serial mistakes presidents from both sides of the political divide have made since the end of the cold war: overambitious global strategies, an insular, dysfunctional foreign policy elite (derisively referred to as “the blob”) and a lack of accountability for disastrous decisions.