Does America Need a Foreign Policy?: Toward a Diplomacy for the 21st Century

Henry Kissinger is one of the best commentators on current affairs in the world. He has been at the center of the world's foreign affairs for decades. This book provides his views and comments on the conflicts between countries for the past fifty years. When ever one reads any comments by anyone on what has happened or is happening in any country or between any countries I always turn to this book for guidance. Mr Kissinger always sets forth the history of that country, the past conflicts, the present conflicts, and puts them into perspective. Whether it be Cuba, Iran, Irag, or any other country, He always provides thoughtful guidance. He points out where he made decisions, when they were wrong, what might have been, and best of all provides suggestions for the future. He always points out what is the possible, rather than merely what one would like to happen. This is a book to keep and refer to on a regular basis.

Edit to revisit Kissinger's role and add book links. Revisitation: We've always known Kissinger is brilliant, and there is no reason to revise that view. However, in light of what is now known about Viet-Nam, we must find Kissinger guilty as a war criminal (first link below). The book begins with a lamentation that foreign policy has been neglected in the last three Presidential campaigns; that the American public is terribly apathetic about foreign affairs; and that Congress is overly interventionist--he refrains from adding the obvious caveat regarding most Members lack of knowledge of the world. In brief, we have a long way to go as a Nation before we can devise and sustain a credible foreign policy. The core point in this entire work is that both economics and technologies, including Internet and communications technologies, have so out-paced politics that the world is at risk. Globalization, terrorism, and other threats cannot be addressed with our existing international, regional, and national political constructs, and new means must be found--new political solutions must be found--if we are to foster security and prosperity in the age of complexity, discontinuity, and fragmentation. There are some useful sub-themes: 1) Each region must be understood in its full complexity, with special attention to both emerging powers and to the subtleties of relations between regional actors--we should not confine ourselves to simply addressing each actor's relationship to the United States. 2) We must take great care to never interpose ourself or allow ourselves to become a substitute for a regional power, e.g. in the dialog between North and South Korea, or India and Pakistan. 3) We must strive at all times to ensure that the historic context is clearly appreciated and underlying every policy formulation, at the same time that we must recognize and define the vast cultural differences between US approaches to foreign policy, and the approaches of others, such as China. 4) Military compromise, whether in the Gulf War, Bosnia, or Kosovo, leaves a strategic vacuum that will inevitably require attention. 5) Africa is the true test for whether a world community can be devised and new solutions found for addressing the severe conditions in Africa that ultimately threaten the well-being of the rest of the world. 6) Our foreign service officers and the political leaders they serve must have history and philosophy restored to their diets, or they will fail to devise long-range concepts, global strategies, and sustainable policies. Dr. Kissinger ends with what some might overlook and what I found to be absolutely core: no economic system can be sustained without a political basis. However much major multinational corporations may care to buy their comforts and their arrangements of convenience, at root, they prosper only because some set of political arrangements among great nations is providing a safety net, including the financial system wit

...this school teacher, Mr Kissinger"..thats a quote from my father after one of the several sober television statements Mr. Kissinger baritoned on the issue of the Nixon administrations' explanation the status of the USA in Vietnam in late 1960's. A generation later I am repeating my fathers assessment to my son "This guy is not just smart he is clever! Mr Kissinger has turned a life time of first hand information and knowledge into insightful wisdom...." Mr. Kissinger was once call `the master of negotiations' he was able to absorb massive amounts of collected information on his rivals and use it to control the process. One of his traits was to speak for hours on end until the others would virtually agree to anything just to get out of the room. Not a good tactic to employ in authoring a book. In fact he applies the opposite in these concisely written pages. A quick, clear thought inspiring read. You have to admire the focus on the subject that Mr. Kissinger has maintained for the past thirty years. His global grasp of the role the USA will have in future international affairs makes this a must read. If you read nothing but the chapters and reference to the future of the United States in the emerging Europe Union you will have gotten value. Mr. Kissinger raises more questions then he attempts to answer. A refreshing approach from the `all knowing' pundits of the talk shows and daily new paper editioials. Will the USA continue to maintain a Super Power dominate role in this arena? Or will they develop a policy more passive and lead by example. Is the USA trying to police the free world by shear super power dominance? Are they in the process alienating 40% of the non-political adult population and inadvertently aiding in the growing demonstrative anti-globalization movement. A (call it by another name) repackaged `new and improved' Nationalistic driven `peoples political party'? Remember the consequences of the German government's movement when it imposed its super power idealism on it weaker neighboring countries under Hitler? Can this happen again? Will the USA repeat the errors of Empires through out history, by creating an disenfranchised unrepresented minority and then fuel their vehicle of discontent by attempting to dominate and control instead of lead by example? Will our foreign policy (or lack of) be the atomic catalyst in the formation of this anti globalization political party at home and in our partner nations? The words "Yankee go home" is nothing new.... Mr. Kissinger just reminds us that its chant is getting louder by put some new music to it in his latest book: Does America Need A Foreign Policy?Personalities and politics aside this book is a `wisdom' waiting to be read.

At the dawning of the new millennium, the United States faces a paradox. It finds itself basking in a success unrivaled by history's greatest empires. In popular culture, finance, weaponry, science, technology and education, the country dominates the worldview. The country considers itself both the source and the guarantor of global democratic institutions.Yet, Kissinger argues, the United States finds itself at a juncture with irrelevance to many of the issues affecting and changing the world order. Interest in foreign affairs, he notes judging from media coverage and congressional sentiment, is at an all time low. As a result the United States finds itself facing some of the most profound and widespread upheavals the world has ever witnessed, yet unwilling and uninterested in developing concepts relevant to the foreign policy reality.Our relations with Europe, Asia, Africa and the Middle East require subtle responses rendering the traditional American quest for an all-purpose, magic foreign relations formula irrelevant. Unfortunately, the former Secretary of State argues, three forces in domestic politics drives American foreign policy in the opposite direction. First, Congress legislates the tactics of foreign policy and seeks to impose a code of conduct on other nations by sanction. These legislative actions drive American foreign policy towards a unilateral and, what Kissinger describes as, occasionally bullying conduct.Second, coverage of these events by a ratings-driven media does not help. Their obsession with the crisis of the moment rarely fosters discussion of the long-range historical challenges. They prefer to portray today's crisis as a morality play with a specific outcome and then move on to the next new sensation. Even though the underlying trends continue, growing in their unmanageability on a daily basis, they receive little attention.Finally, the deepest reason for America's failure to develop a coherent strategy is the presence of three different generations, each with its own approach to foreign relations dominate the foreign policy debate - the Cold Warriors, Vietnam Protestors and Generation X, whose experience makes it hard for them to understand the perceptions of the previous two.The inability of these three groups to articulate an unapologetic statement of enlightened self-interest results in what Kissinger refers to as "Progressive Paralysis." Certainly the country must fashion a foreign policy consistent with its democratic heritage and concerned with the democracy's world wide vitality, he writes, but it must also translate these values into answers to difficult questions: What, for our survival, must we seek to prevent no matter how painful the means? What wrongs is it essential to right? What goals are simply beyond our capacity?