Bill Burns, an ambassador-turned-spy-chief, is one of America’s most respected diplomats. He initiated the secret talks with Iran which paved the way for Barack Obama’s nuclear deal. He helped to thaw Sino-American relations after the Chinese spy-balloon incident in 2023 had plunged them into a deep freeze. Most recently, he negotiated the extraordinarily difficult ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
But not all talks succeed. Mr Burns was ignored when he warned Vladimir Putin not to invade Ukraine. And much of his work on Iran now appears to have been undone. He sits down with Shashank Joshi, The Economist’s defence editor, to discuss what he’d do differently with the benefit of hindsight, his approach to handling strongmen and the future of American spycraft.
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