Henry Kissinger's Diplomacy
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Henry Kissinger's purpose in Diplomacy is to place America's twentieth-century foreign policy firmly in the flow of the history of foreign relations that begins with the Concert of Europe following the Napoleonic wars. At that time the dream of a European empire was largely abandoned for the more practical balance of power among a varying cast of nations. The subsequent Realpolitik of Bismarck and others contains, Kissinger believes, the germ of truth about power and international relations. Kissinger, a professional student of European foreign policy, has promoted the Realist approach to international politics for his entire career. This book demonstrates his belief that America's fate in the twentieth century illustrates the inherent truth of the Realist belief in the primacy of power in international relations. Kissinger also seems to possess a secondary purpose in the book, that is, placing himself and his career in the flow of the history of modern diplomacy. His extensive treatment of American involvement in Vietnam takes the form of a justification of his actions there while his diplomatic work in the US recognition of mainland China is merely explained -- and very well. Kissinger is fascinated throughout, of course, by the question of power, as its primary role in international relations is the basis of any Realist analysis. But the purpose of the diplomatic arrangement he admires most, the Concert of Europe arranged at Vienna, and of diplomacy in general wa
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Two, there was a bipolar system involving the US and the USSR. The United States, by virtue of geography and economic power, has never been involved in a balance of power situation. Had the US been involved in such a system it might have evolved a very different foreign policy from what it had. But, from being an outsider that benefited from the European balance of power, the US went to being one member of the dual system that dominated international relations from 1945 to 1990. Kissinger holds that in either system it is the identification of national interests and the pursuit of those interests that govern the actions of states. Only the United States has clouded this pursuit with the promotion of its political values and the belief that it could persuade the entire world to share them.
Thus, the secondary thesis of Kissinger's book is that American foreign policy has not learned the truth of his first thesis. This secondary thesis is sometimes mistaken for Kissinger's main point -- but to do this one has to view Kissinger's thought and his career only in the context of his decade at the center of US foreign policy. Kissinger is reiterating themes about US foreign policy that he had dealt with in both his academic and
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Approximate Word count = 6920
Approximate Pages = 28 (250 words per page)
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