Martin Indyk has written a landmark book, Master of the Game: Henry Kissinger and the Art of Middle East Diplomacy, on the Mideast diplomacy of Henry Kissinger, Secretary of State to presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. Indyk’s exceptional and forensic study of diplomatic records along with personal discussions with Kissinger on those events – all informed further by Indyk’s unique insights from his own decades of involvement in the search for peace in the Middle East under presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama – provide an extraordinary window on these events and the challenges facing President Biden and his foreign policy team in today’s Middle East.

How did the United States end up so centrally involved in Middle East peace negotiations? In an era of strategic competition, what is the Biden administration's Middle East strategy? What does Australia need to know about Biden’s Middle East policy going forward?

To discuss these issues, the USSC hosted a conversation with Martin Indyk and the United States Studies Centre (USSC) Non-Resident Senior Fellow Bruce Wolpe and Research Associate Victoria Cooper.