This is my first book, which means that I started it with some ludicrously misguided notions about what the experience would be like. One of the biggest was assuming that it would be a solitary endeavor. How wrong that turned out to be.

The truth is that producing a book like this one involves a huge number of people. I’m incredibly grateful to all of them. In many cases, I never could have pulled this off without their help. In a few others, I suppose I could have, but neither I nor the book would have emerged as well as we did. Assuming that the end result is actually any good, they deserve most of the credit for it.

I want to start by thanking one of the first non-blood relatives I told about this project: Andrew Wylie. To my amazement, the world’s most powerful literary agent offered to represent me on the spot. All these months later, I continue to find Andrew’s confidence in me slightly mystifying. But whatever his reasoning, he’s become a zealous champion of mine, and I feel very lucky to have him and his staff, especially James Pullen, on my side.

I’m also grateful to Andrew for connecting me with Tim Duggan, who became my editor at Crown. As a longtime editor myself, I’d always rather be the one wielding the red pen. But Tim made the role-reversal as painless as possible, and his smart suggestions improved my draft significantly. He also knew just when my self-confidence needed bolstering. He and everyone else at Crown were a delight to work with—especially Sarah Pekdemir, Penny Simon, William Wolfslau, and Norman Watkins. So was Andy Young, my sharp-eyed fact-checker.

A long list of friends and colleagues helped me navigate the writing process and shape my ideas along the way. They read drafts, offered counsel, listened to me kvetch, and kept me going when I doubted myself. So thank you to Eric Block, Steven Cook, Avi Gesser, Paul Golob, Laurie Hays, Daniel Kurtz-Phelan, Adam Kushner, Anja Manuel, Tyler Maroney, Adam Segal, Geoff Shandler, Ruchir Sharma, Peter Van Praagh, Joshua Wallack, and Jonathan Weisstub. Thanks especially to my fidus Achates, Alexander Hardy, who played the role of amateur psychologist (despite his surgical training) and gave me advice (inevitably hilarious, often helpful, occasionally irresponsible) on everything from titles to typography.

I owe a big debt to John Delury, Philip Gourevitch, Keith Jefferis, Joshua Kurlantzick, Shannon O’Neil, Seth Pinsky, Jon S. T. Quah, Jeffrey Reitz, Michael Shellenberger, Julia Sweig, and Valerie Wirtschafter for reading individual chapters and correcting my worst mistakes. And I owe even more to three good friends and colleagues who also happen to be crack professional editors. Stuart Reid, Carla Robbins, and Justin Vogt foolishly agreed to pore over every word in this book. Then they actually did it, and the result is much better for it.

At various points, Nikita Lalwani, Anna Kordunsky, and Jordan Schneider contributed research, as did my assistant Christine Clark, who worked tirelessly to help me sort through the literature, nail down statistics, and track down sources; she has made me look far more knowledgeable than I actually am. As you’d expect, this book involved a lot of reporting, and I’m grateful to Flavia Antunes, Rosanna Fuentes Berain, Ambassador Robert Blake, Joe Cochrane, Aaron Connelly, Alex Feldman, Nisid Hajari, Ana Paula Odorica Mariscal, Alexandre Menezes, Ambassador Earl Miller, and Maurice Tempelsman for connecting me to the right people in the dozen countries I visited in the course of that work. Let me also thank Lucy Congers (Mexico) and Rusma (Indonesia) for acting as translators.

Back in New York, Joanna and Daniel Rose provided me with an extraordinary asset most urban writers can only dream of: a quiet writing office. It proved an invaluable gift for which I’m deeply indebted to them.

Of course, all the time I spent in that office was time I didn’t spend at my day job. Yet my wonderful colleagues at Foreign Affairs and the Council on Foreign Relations never—well, rarely—complained. I know my absence made life harder for them in some ways (though probably easier in others). So for their forbearance, support, and advice, I want to thank Richard Haass, Jim Lindsay, Jan Mowder Hughes, Andrew Palladino, Jake Meth, Iva Zoric, and Irina Faskianos. And special thanks to Katie Allawala, Stuart Reid, Justin Vogt, Ann Tappert, Sarah Foster, and everyone else at the magazine for stepping up and stepping in while I was obsessing over The Fix.

Finally, I need to thank the people who made me the kind of person who could write this book in the first place.

I’ve been incredibly lucky in my career to enjoy the mentorship of several brilliant writers, editors, and thinkers. Two deserve mention here. Fareed Zakaria has hired me twice: first as a junior editor at Foreign Affairs (when I knew next to nothing about journalism or foreign affairs) and then at Newsweek. In the years since, he has provided endless assistance, advice, and friendship. I don’t know where I’d be without all that, but I know I wouldn’t be here. Gideon Rose, meanwhile, has been the best boss I can imagine. He has been unbelievably generous and patient with me, in some ways I deserved but many that I didn’t. And he has shaped the way I think about politics and international affairs more than any other individual.

Except for my family, that is—who also gave me the confidence to believe that my work was worth sharing. Thank you to my brothers, Noah and Andrew, and their wives, Julie and Tina. As for my parents, Bill and Rochelle, the words “thank you” don’t begin to do justice to the debt I owe you, or to the gratitude I feel. But they’re the best I have to offer. Know that I’m incredibly proud to be your son and to be able to share this book with you, and know that I know that without your decades of love, your teaching, your hard work, and your inestimable support there would be no book (of course, there’d be no me either).

Finally, I want to thank the four people to whom I dedicate The Fix.

Gerome and Novi: you were amazingly patient with me during the time it took me to write this, even though it meant I was home less and distracted more when I was there. Your love and good cheer and exuberant humor and irrational faith in me always kept me going—and made me work as efficiently as I could, so that I could get back to you guys as soon as possible.

Leo: you’re still too young to understand these words. But as you’ll someday learn, you and this book are twins of a sort. Your mom and I first found out about you the same week that I signed my contract with Crown, and you and the book grew and took shape simultaneously—though you beat it into the world by arriving in between chapters 6 and 7. What I thought would be impossible timing turned out to be perfect timing. For you have brought me improbable amounts of joy and strength, to a degree I never dared hope for. In many ways, this book is your book.

And last, my sweet Alexis: I struggle to know how to thank you, for you’ve given me the most of all. You are my first reader, my best friend, my closest confidante. You made this book possible. You made this book better. I don’t know how I’ll ever repay you for it and for everything else. But I’m going to do my damnedest.