Kissinger's View of Diplomacy in the 21st Century

Although the title of Henry Kissinger's book, Does America Need A Foreign Policy? is posited as a question, it is a purely rhetorical one. Former U.S. Secretary of State, Assistant for National Security Affairs in the Nixon Administration, and 1973 Nobel Peace Prize winner Kissinger does not ask a question for which he doesn't already have the answer, and he believes he has the right answers, a view that is made clear in this 2001 book, published a few months prior to the events of September 11. The book, however, does contain an Afterword dealing with the terrorist attack on the U.S.

The subtitle of the book, Toward a Diplomacy for the 21st Century, is a more apt title for this book. What Kissinger argues for is a complete revamping of American foreign policy to ensure that the United States keeps its prominent and powerful place in international affairs in this post-Cold War century. Kissinger is highly critical of U.S. policy that reacts to one world crisis at a time instead of the development of a long-term diplomatic policy. Overall the book is lucid, well thought out, informative and well written, but it does reveal Kissinger's politically conservative, Republican bias.

The book is divided into seven parts, covering different areas of the world and issues such as globalization (he is all for this), and humanitarian intervention (he basically opposes this). In each chapter, Kissinger analyzes the challenges facing the United States, and explains what he believes U.S.

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r calls for an emphasis on long term rather than short term policies, as well as increased American sensitivity toward its European partners. Latin American relations is the focus of Chapter 3, "The Western Hemisphere: The World of Democracies II." After discussing the history of Latin American countries from the American perspective, Kissinger concludes with an optimistic forecast for the future of such countries as Argentina, Columbia, Brazil, Chile and Mexico. He cites free trade as the "objective of all nations in the region" as well as a commitment to "universal education, and equal and efficient administration of justice" (p. 85). Given that he admits that in Latin America "the gap between the political and the economic worlds is flagrant" (p. 84), his optimism seems somewhat far-fetched. But Kissinger places a lot of hope in the success of NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) between the United States, Mexico and Canada giving credit to President Bill Clinton for his vision in this matter, although he criticizes the ex-President throughout the book for his other policies and actions, and faults him for failing to include other Latin American countries in NAFTA, and even extend the agreement to Europe. Kissinger st

Category: Government - K