Opportunities Missed, Opportunities Seized

Bruce W. Jentleson’s book Opportunities Missed, Opportunities Seized is a compilation of accounts from different conflicts in the post Cold War era. These accounts are chosen to show the uses of preventative diplomacy as well as some of its failures. Jentleson’s writing is a very small portion of the entire book; the introduction and the conclusion. It is in these two parts of the book that the thesis is located, the rest of the book is an attempt to prove Jentleson’s hypothesis.
The thesis of Jentleson’s work is that preventative diplomacy is a necessary tool that should be used in order to help stop wars before they start. The author goes further by mentioning that we must take a realistic approach to preventative diplomacy. He defends against critics claiming that preventative diplomacy is a realistic approach to handling international problems. Morally, Jentleson says “[. . .] preventative diplomacy [. . .] is a viable strategy and can be done, and that it has...