‘World Order’ reflects badly on Henry Kissinger and on the establishment that celebrates him.

2015-07-10T10:16:06-04:00

After I read this on The Federalist, I thought it explained a lot of Kissinger's pros and cons on the subject of war, peace, and Americas Global Roll in these times. It's a long read but interesting.

Establishment voices joined together in acclamation. In the Boston Globe, Nicholas Burns (Condoleezza Rice’s right-hand man at the State Department, now at Harvard’s Kennedy School) praised Henry Kissinger’s new tome for its “words of wisdom” about “the international order he rightly believes is a necessary precondition for global stability, prosperity, and peace.” In the New Criterion, Conrad Black called it “a brilliantly conceived and executed book even by Henry Kissinger’s very high standards.” Michiko Kakutani, the New York Times’s principal book reviewer for more than 30 years, said: “At its best, his writing functions like a powerful zoom lens, opening out to give us a panoramic appreciation of larger historical trends and patterns, then zeroing in on small details and anecdotes that vividly illustrate his theories.” In the Wall Street Journal, James Traub added that “World Order” undermines “the romantic pieties of left and right that have shaped so much of American foreign policy over the past century.”

http://thefederalist.com/2015/07/10/the-courage-of-kissingers-contradictions/?utm_source=The+Federalist+List&utm_campaign=8b0f28c9a1-RSS_The_Federalist_Daily_Updates_w_Transom&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_cfcb868ceb-8b0f28c9a1-83810921

The Courage Of Kissinger’s Contradictions

Response by Capt Seid Waddell made Jul 10 at 2015 10:45 AM

2015-07-10T10:45:41-04:00

SGT Private RallyPoint Member, I'm afraid that the "necessary precondition for global stability, prosperity, and peace" are never going to happen. We seem to be headed into a period of the opposite in each of those categories with the U.S. abandoning its leadership role in the world.

Elections have consequences.

Response by COL Vincent Stoneking made Jul 10 at 2015 10:46 AM

2015-07-10T10:46:49-04:00

To be fair, I don't think his ideas reflect badly on him. If I tell you how to build a house and you go off and build cars, the fact that you build crappy cars isn't my fault. Kissinger has always forwarded a rationalist, unemotional, realist approach to foreign/international policy that emphasized consistency and strength. Consistency isn't a strength of our political class. Neither is an unemotional approach.