Respectful congratulations to Henry Kissinger on his 100th birthday today on May 27, 2023. (original) (raw)
Related papers
Kissinger Henry: World Order, New York: Penguin Press, 2014
Journal of Regional Security, 2015
At the age of 91, prominent realist and former secretary of state Henry A. Kissinger has demonstrated the lasting ability to provoke vigorous academic-and, for that matter, practical-debate on important international issues. Some of his famous works include a rewrite of his doctoral thesis entitled A World Restored: Castlereagh, Metternich and the Problems of Peace 1812-1822, seminal Diplomacy, three-volume memoirs (The White House Years, Years of Upheaval, Years of Renewal), as well as the recent study On China (2011). His most recent, seventeenth book, with a concise albeit somewhat pretentious title World Order, has been the subject of several dozen academic and journalistic reviews, ranging from harsh critique (Anne-Marie Slaughter in The New Republic) to favorable endorsement (Kissinger's biographer Walter Isaacson in Time). Various points of the book have caught the attention of different discussants, depending on their respective interests and opinions of the depth of Kissinger's analysis. Packed with history and theory alike, as well as descriptive and prescriptive passages and pages, the book stands as yet another, perhaps more systematic, statement of Kissinger's well-known creed on the laws and principles of international politics.
Book Review: Henry Kissinger's World Order
This long essay seeks to address the many issues raised in World Order and highlighted by the reviewers in three parts. First, I reconstruct the broad sweep of the book’s arguments, point out its various strengths, and explore the overall purpose of the book in the context of Kissinger’s work, life, and times. Second, I explore Kissinger’s descriptions of the three international orders – the Westphalian, the Asian, and the Islamic, arguing that they are somewhat removed from the contemporary academic debates, and ponder over how this should influence the way we read Kissinger’s project. Third, I point out certain flaws in Kissinger’s historical narrative, and contextualize his project from a historian’s perspective. I conclude that while World Order often fails to engage with many of the major academic debates of our time, it remains an important work in the canon of Realism for successfully summarizing Kissinger’s oeuvre in the service of the busy policy practitioner and the interested public.
Beyond the (Auto)biographies: The Political Thought of Henry Kissinger
By focusing on Kissinger’s more theoretical works, I hope to draw attention to the contributions and problems of Kissinger the academic, hidden for so long in plain sight beneath the shadow of his own social clout. First, I provide a thumbnail sketch of Kissinger’s life and times to facilitate thinking about the developments which shaped his political thought. In the main analysis I argue that Kissinger should be best understood as a scholar within the subfield of Foreign Policy Analysis, even though his emphasis on order and shared values among sovereign states is most in tune with Structural Realism, otherwise known as the English School of International Relations. With this radical interpretation, I explore the evolution in the meaning of key concepts that appear again and again throughout Kissinger’s works, including legitimate order, balance of power, revolutionary state, national interest, and leadership. In doing so, I also point out flaws and inconsistencies in Kissinger’s thought, specifically what he acknowledges to be a fundamental difficulty in separating non-revolutionary and revolutionary revisionism before it is too late; the lack of a clear roadmap for building consensus among diverse actors and his summary dismissal of international organizations that are already serving some of that function; his elitism and often downright hostility to democratic processes in the domestic sphere; and a certain cognitive dissonance in his insistence on asserting that American motives are principally noble even while acknowledging the enduring importance of power politics. I trace these flaws back, ultimately, to his quest for redemption, and acknowledge his manifold contributions to American foreign policy and world order.
Kissinger's "World Order": Review of the Polish Edition
Athenaeum. Polish Political Science Studies, 2018
The publication of the Polish-language version of the book World Order [Porządek światowy] by Henry Kissinger was undoubtedly an important event on the Polish publishing arena of 2016. The Polish version of this publication was prepared just a few months after its original release in the United States (Penguin Press). World Order is an essay of global importance and at the same time it can be considered as a kind of testament of Kissinger.
NETSOL: New Trends in Social and Liberal Sciences, 2022
Henry Kissinger has been an active politician and diplomat in the international politics of Cold War with demonstrated success in theory and practice. He is one of the rare politicians with a quite a few biography books. In this latest biography of Kissinger, Thomas Schwartz from Vanderbilt University reveals a unique perspective on Kissinger’s life and work. Learning about Kissinger's life and his decision-making process is as crucial as the most fundamental question of the book: Who is Kissinger? What would or could Kissinger do? Beyond Kissinger, the book entails information about the politicians Kissinger interacted across the world on various political disputes. Schwartz’s work objectively summarizes these disputes and Kissinger’s approach to each dispute gives reader a glimpse of his political personality.