From Pearl Harbor to the neutralization of Osama bin Laden, every US President is confronted with crises. Any one of them also needs to manage relations with foreign leaders. Hence, a need for an organized mechanism and apparatus to navigate the traffic and make sure that POTUS can take the pulse of the world at a moment’s notice. This is made possible thanks to a vital institution, whose history is brilliantly recounted by former Clinton administration official and ABC host George Stephanopoulos in The Situation Room: The Inside Story of Presidents in Crisis (Grand Central).

Before its establishment, Presidents monitored world events on an ad hoc basis. For any military history enthusiast, the depiction of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s wheelchair being pushed in a former billiard room to consult maps pinned on the walls to monitor developments unfolding during World War II is captivating. Like so many other things, John F. Kennedy would be an innovator by creating the Situation Room in light of the 1961 Bay of Pigs disaster. Every one of his successors would rely on this evolving institution to accompany the United States’ presence on the world scene.

The most important takeaway from the book relates to the notion of the “three Ps”. The Situation Room is: 1) a place where information is gathered, processed, analyzed and decided upon; 2) it regroups people who serve the Presidency in a selfless and non-partisan way and; 3) a process revealing how every commander in chief manages the affairs of the world.

In that regard, the scariest flareup happened during the 1973 Kippur War. Fearing that the Soviets might launch a nuclear attack in the Middle East, “the men in the Sit Room decided to raise military alertness to DEFCON 3” while President Nixon was “passed out upstairs” – most probably because he wanted to numb the throes of the Watergate scandal. Several time zones away, General Secretary Brezhnev “was also in a downward spiral, fueled by alcohol and sleeping pills” in the Kremlin. The leaders of the two main superpowers were incapacitated while the world was on the brink. Cold sweat.

At the personality level, my favorite chapter in George Stephanopoulos’ book is the one about President George H. W. Bush. The 41st President was a keen student of Chinese affairs, being referred to “as the government’s desk officer for China.” Dating from his tenure as Chief of the US Liaison Office in China, Bush Senior had developed an intimate knowledge of Beijing. During the Tiananmen Square events in 1989, he wanted to know on which avenues the People’s Liberation Army’s tanks were rolling on.

President Bush probably also has the distinction of having been the most decent person to be served by the Situation Room. “It’s difficult to find anyone who has a bad recollection of working in the first Bush administration”, writes the author. The reader can easily understand why, learning about the presidential couple inviting staffers to watch movies with them and eat popcorn or Mr. Bush’s relaxed reaction to a staffer’s kid putting his hand in the President’s glass of beer. “You two calm down! I’m a grandparent”, he said to the panicked parents.

I’ve always been a huge fan of #41. The 1990-1991 Gulf War was the moment in history that crystallized my fascination for international politics. The book’s chapter devoted to President Bush not only proved extremely insightful about that politico-military moment but also comforted my feelings about the leader who led an impressive coalition to victory.

Humans being humans, there are also uncanny episodes between the covers. Jimmy Carter resorting to parapsychology during the Hostages Crisis that marked the end of his presidency, the anecdote about Bill Clinton refusing to take British Prime Minister John Major’s call because the latter had gotten involved on the Republican side during the 1992 presidential campaign or the (most certainly) frustrating habit of Russian President Vladimir Putin always tricking Barack Obama in waiting for him to come on the line because he abhors being made to wait.

In a nutshell, The Situation Room is a history of the American Presidency, told from the perspective of those who are called to plan for and manage crises. Washington is the epicenter of world politics; such an institution is not only essential for the practitioners of power but also essential to understand.

The main conclusion I take from this riveting book is that the Presidents who maximized the potential of the Situation Room and who used it efficiently scored the best on world affairs.

Gifted with a gripping style and a unique breadth of experience, George Stephanopoulos is an exceptional guide to accompany the reader behind the scenes of the White House’s nerve center.

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George Stephanopoulos (with Lisa Dickey), The Situation Room: The Inside Story of Presidents in Crisis, New York,Grand Central, 2024, 358 pages.