Bill Moyers Journal . Mark Danner

During the presidential campaign, Barack Obama laid out his vision for a new era of diplomacy and international cooperation — but can a President who inherited two wars change the course of a nation?

Journalist Mark Danner speaks with Bill Moyers about the challenges Obama will face as he attempts to reset the mindset of America from war to peace, and redefine America's role in the international community.

In three decades of reporting from the frontlines of violent upheavals, journalist Mark Danner has seen countless deaths over ethnic and political divides, and witnessed firsthand the often disastrous unforeseen consequences of U.S. involvement.

Danner's new book, STRIPPING BARE THE BODY, explores the intersection of politics and violence, drawing on three decades of reporting from conflict zones — from the end of the Cold War to the continuing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Danner writes in the introduction:

Want to understand a society, comprehend the roots of its injustices, trace the structure of its power? Examine it at a moment of intense political struggle, when leader assassinates leader, party milita battles army, death squads liquidate rivals, paramilitaries massacre the defenseless — and above it all power, that great distinguished thing, suddenly disembodied and contested, floats free, bobbing up and down above the roiling crowd like a brightly colored ball, ready to be seized and claimed by the strongest, the most clever, the luckiest.

"With this vivid and deeply disturbing book," writes Andrew Bacevich, "Mark Danner affirms his standing as our preeminent guide to the world's broken places, littered with the detritus of American carelessness and delusions."

Mark Danner is a writer, journalist and professor who has written for more than two decades on foreign affairs and international conflict. He has covered Central America, Haiti, the Balkans and Iraq, among many other stories, and has written extensively about the development of American foreign policy during the late Cold War and afterward, and about violations of human rights during that time.

His books include STRIPPING BARE THE BODY (2009), THE SECRET WAY TO WAR: THE DOWNING STREET MEMO AND THE IRAQ WAR'S BURIED HISTORY (2006), TORTURE AND TRUTH: AMERICA, ABU GHRAIB AND THE WAR ON TERROR (2004), THE ROAD TO ILLEGITIMACY: ONE REPORTER'S TRAVEL'S THROUGH THE 2000 FLORIDA VOTE RECOUNT (2004) and THE MASSACRE AT EL MOZOTE: A PARABLE OF THE COLD WAR (1994). Danner was a longtime staff writer for THE NEW YORKER and is a regular contributor to THE NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS.

He is also professor of Journalism at the University of California at Berkeley, where he directs the Goldman Forum, and the James Clarke Chace Professor of Foreign Affairs, Politics, and Humanities at Bard College.