Absorbing account on the art of dealing and warring among nations

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	• Diplomacy (A Touchstone Book) Henry Kissinger Simon & Schuster, 1995 - 912 pages average customer review:based on 89 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Simply the Best Book on Diplomacy in a Multi-Polar Environment

A magnum opus - one among many - of Henry Kissinger.

A long book, like the length of his Harvard thesis on which it is based - which was a record setter at Harvard - and the institution of the "Kissinger Rule" on limiting the length of theses at Harvard.

The length of the book - it is necessary. It is well worth it. It is in-depth. It is a definitive study of diplomacy in a multi-polar environment. Entangling alliances. The construction and use of balance of power politics. Real Politik.

International diplomacy and politics based on power - both actual and perceived. Balancing. All of this theory or reality? Both. Constructed on and from - or merely descriptive of - real world in-depth diplomatic history.

Diplomatic history which Kissinger researched, analyzed, synthesized.

If you desire to learn about diplomacy, this is required reading. It is also excellent with lots of details on how the European powers manuevered diplomatically and how they calculated and balanced each other's military and other power. The balance resulted in a long term stable Europe. A Europe for which for a time was free of large scale war. His main thesis in the book concerns the positive results of the use of a balance of power and real politik strategy, which he argues resulted in a long term period of peace on the European continent. The balance and thus the peace, eventually broke down and war broke out.

If you are serious student of diplomacy, foreign affairs, international relations, power, political science, or history, this book is excellent and rewarding.

It does not matter if you are not a fan of Kissenger or real politics or balance of power theory. His analysis of history or his theoretical synthesis is an important part of the overall conceptual framework international relations and thus is required reading.

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The World According to Henry Kissinger

During his terms as foreign secretary and national security adviser Henry Kissinger was the ultimate bad guy. Nice to have such a chap around! All the frustrations during the Nixon and Ford Administrations could be directed at Henry Kissinger. But every bloke deserves a second chance.
In 1994 Kissinger wrote Diplomacy. It really is a brilliant piece of work!!Astonishing how a former secretary of state commands every detail of statemanship in foreign policy. Kissinger deals with the concepts of national interest, balance of power and power politics. The book is a thoughtful exercise in modern politics and as such a wonderful textbook for every student of government and bureaucracies. The foreign policy of the United States in the twentieth century strikes Kissinger as ambivalent. It is insisting simultaneously on the inadmissibility of intervention in the domestic affairs of other states and on the other hand passionately asserting that its (the United States') own values are universally applicable. In the day to day conduct of foreign affairs the United States is pragmatic while no nation has been more ideological in the pursuit of its assumed historic moral convictions. Well, Kissinger wrote his Diplomacy in the period between Bush 41 and Bush 43. Maybe we could pinpoint this precisely as the difference between pragmatic and ideological.

Luuk Oost

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Absorbing account on the art of dealing and warring among nations

In Diplomacy, Henry Kissinger presents his masterpiece analysis of the evolution of the art of diplomacy. As a top diplomat, the author leaves out details of historic events that are circumstantial to his theme. That is the understanding of how national diplomacy has grown up in the last four centuries.

Diplomacy starts with the seventeenth century dominance of Holy Empire where the Emperor drove his absolute authority direct from God. In such imperial design, the populace is the servant of the Emperor who represents God on Earth. Democracy is a sin since it questions God's will. Modern science was newborn and untested.

The emergence of reformation presented challenge to the Holy Empire. That gave rise to new diplomacy. France improvised the tactic of "nation-state" as a savior of its populace from the estranged Empire. Astute leaders would have to adapt the biblical doctrine to deal with the new trend of questioning the divine authority of the Emperor. The rise of "nation-state" started the "immoral" struggle for national interests and securities, in place of God's work.

The national struggles that replaced the Holy Empire collided over land grabs, borders, and national interests. Bismarck advanced that evolution farther into "Realpolitik" with cold and calculating national dealing that is devoid of personal affection. The result was the unification of Germany.

The major landmarks in the evolution of diplomacy are closely attributed to individual statesmen with secure and long careers on the national theatre. After Bismarck's removal, the reckless "Worldpolitik" led to expansionism and two world wars. The aggravating factor was the emergence of new military technology that complicated the coordination of diplomatic planning and military strategy.

As modern science grew confident and Deity grew challenged, the military industry outpaced diplomacy in securing national interests. WWI engulfed Europe as a result of the failure of diplomacy to catch up with military mobilization. As science grew older and military force became lethal, WWII erupted out of exercising excessive diplomacy, with little military strategy on the allied side.

The author delves into the psychology of nations and leaders in a brilliant analysis of its impact on historic development. For three centuries, the cold and calculating Great Britain dominated the seas and retained its imperial kingdom and democratic government in determined trend of "splendid isolation". Great Britain kept the balance of the European forces till its fateful end in the marsh of German and Russian dictatorships. Modern technology then eliminated the oceanic barriers between America and the old world. Great Britain is then replaced by USA, with only one difference: rejection to colonialism.

The psychological analysis of the behavior of the statesmen in time of peace and war offers deep understanding of how our present day policy has evolved. As recent as the year 1914, WWI started because the European emperors refused to attend the funeral of the assassinated Austrian emperor because his dead wife was not from noble blood. In 1960, Henry Kissinger was freely and humbly walking Kansas City's streets with Henry Truman. Neither of the two was from noble blood, yet each of them was the top policy maker in the human history.

Diplomacy has grown and matured as our struggle with faith, race, and science continues.

Mohamed F. El-Hewie
Author of
Essentials of Weightlifting and Strength Training

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Re. GLBT "Speaking as someone who loathes Kissinger..."

GLBT, with your use of the imflamatory jargon of revolution, words like "loathes", "evil", "insane", and "atrocities", you give yourself away as a "leading edge" or early boomer, i.e. those born between 1946-49 who considered themselves entitled to speak for the entire baby boom generation, and ultimately the nation. Most of the younger baby boomers were appalled at the arrogance and audacity of the leading edge boomers, and didn't appreciate your "leadership" and spokesmanship.

Henry Kissinger was none of the things you describe; he was simply trying to perform his job responsibly, and he did so reasonably well considering how difficult leading edge boomers made it for him. It is the selfish blindness and unfairness of people like you, that made it possible for the Cambodian killing fields to occur; and I thought it was breath-taking, the audacity of the leading edge boomers in ultimately trying to shift their guilt onto Henry Kissinger. What revolutionaries - using the "big lie" technique created by another revolutionary.

You take me back to the early '70's when people like you hogged the podiums at Cornell, Columbia and Berkely. Now it's you and the other leading edge boomers are the ones who are stuck in the past, who have failed to learn from the mistakes of history. You are all about to be swept into irrelevance with your epitome, Hillary Clinton. Good riddance; you will speak for no one but yourselves from now on with no one to listen to you but yourselves.

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Shows historical roots of Kissinger's brand of diplomacy

I enjoyed reading this book. Dr. Kissinger is, without saying, one of the most talented and accomplished diplomats that this nation has had. The fact that he ignited so much controversy on both the left and the right does much to confirm this view. In this book, he traces the evolution of international diplomacy from the 17th century. He begins with a discussion of Cardinal Richelieu, a talented practitioner of raison d'etat, which would later develop into realpolitik. Richelieu, though a French Catholic prelate and regent, would ultimately cooperate with Protestant and Muslim rulers against the fellow Catholic Habsburg Empire. It is easy to draw parallels between this and the Nixon-Kissinger policy of rapproachment with Communist China and efforts to play China and the Soviet Union against each other, to the benefit of the United States. Dr. Kissinger also spends a lot of time discussing Metternich's "balance of power" brand of diplomacy, and Bismark's realpolitik. It is clear from the presentation that he has a great deal of interest in, and respect for, these 2 men (and, in my view, with plenty of justification). This book is a "must-read" for people who want a better understanding of diplomatic history.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

THE SEMINAL WORK ON FOREIGN POLICY AND THE ART OF DIPLOMACY

Moving from a sweeping overview of history to blow-by-blow accounts of his negotiations with world leaders, Henry Kissinger describes how the art of diplomacy has created the world in which we live, and how America's approach to foreign affairs has always differed vastly from that of other nations.

Brilliant, controversial, and profoundly incisive, Diplomacy stands as the culmination of a lifetime of diplomatic service and scholarship. It is vital reading for anyone concerned with the forces that have shaped our world today and will impact upon it tomorrow.

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