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Kissinger's Views on Power

This paper discusses Henry Kissinger's views on power. The study will include a variety of opinions held by political theorists on Kissinger's dealings in the Middle East, Latin America, Asia, and elsewhere. Kissinger attained a high reputation in the media during his time as Secretary of State and was praised for his "shuttle diplomacy" and for other actions seen as leading toward peace. Yet, history shows that peace was not achieved and that many of the situations into which Kissinger thrust himself and, sometimes, American military might were only made worse as a consequence. We are still coping with many of the issues raised by Kissinger's actions to this day. At the same time, though, Kissinger remains an icon for some and is still asked to explain his views on current issues by the media, trotted out as a guru by those who have not examined his record closely enough. One issue is that it is not always clear who in an administration is responsible for a policy, and the media kindly ascribed whatever was good to Kissinger and much that was bad to Nixon, an easy target because he was forced to resign from office.

The thesis of the paper is that Kissinger's approach to foreign policy and politics generally is a flawed one, based on outmoded concepts about the world. Mazlish is particularly effective in presenting this view, writing that Kissinger's political philosophy is based on nineteenth century concepts of the world which no longer apply:

Henry Kissinger . . . has contributed to what I refer to as the 'Europeanization' of American foreign policy. One of the key elements in this transformation has been a ponderously conceptualized and updated version of the balanceofpower doctrines of the 19th Century . . . that Kissinger has studied so intently. . . The paradox is that Kissinger's world, and ours, has been irretrievably revolutionized at the very moment he sought to stabilize it in the oldfashioned terms...

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Kissinger's Views on Power. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 03:01, March 29, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1690408.html