"New Yorkers Are Party Animals—and So Are the Youth of the Middle East!"

This Thursday evening, a mix of Manhattan's literati, business professionals, and foreign-policy wonks gathered at the Jewish-chic Soho Synogogue loft in downtown Manhattan to celebrate the release of Jared Cohen's new book, Children of Jihad: A Young American's Travels Among the Youth of the Middle East.

At 25, Mr. Cohen is the Bush administration's youngest ever policy planner, and was recently touted by The New Yorker as "Condi's party starter." His extensive travels throughout Africa and the Middle East have put him in some hairy situations, and ultimately led to his being banned from entering Iran. Girlfriend Jill Keller, another uber-enthused government-affairs consultant , joked with a friend, "So I saw Steve Krasner,"--the former director of policy planning for the state dept--"last week, and he was like, 'What are you doing dating this guy? I mean, he's got such a short life expectancy!'"

That hasn't stopped Condi’s new wunderkind from living it up and partying hard. "The message of my book will resonate more with people in New York than anywhere else because New Yorkers are party animals and so are the youth of the Middle East!" Mr. Cohen gushed.

Still, Columbia Law professor Mathew Waxman, who had been Mr. Cohen's boss at State, couldn't resist teasing the man of the hour for the attention he pays to how he looks. "Cohen's got more product in his hair than the rest of the policy staff combined!"