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Kissinger's Shuttle Diplomacy: A Masterclass in Realpolitik and its Enduring Legacy
Introduction:
The Cold War was a period of intense geopolitical tension, a chess match played on a global scale with nuclear annihilation as the ultimate, terrifying checkmate. Amidst this perilous environment, Henry Kissinger, then Secretary of State under Presidents Nixon and Ford, orchestrated a series of daring diplomatic maneuvers known as "Shuttle Diplomacy." This wasn't your typical back-and-forth correspondence; this was high-stakes, personal diplomacy, often conducted in secret, jetting between warring nations to broker peace where others failed. This post delves deep into Kissinger's Shuttle Diplomacy, exploring its successes, failures, and lasting impact on international relations. We will analyze the key strategies employed, examine specific case studies, and assess its relevance in today's complex geopolitical landscape. Prepare for a fascinating journey into the heart of Cold War diplomacy, revealing the brilliance and controversy surrounding one of history's most influential figures.
1. The Genesis of Shuttle Diplomacy: A Response to Crisis
Kissinger's Shuttle Diplomacy wasn't a pre-planned strategy; it was a pragmatic response to the escalating tensions in the Middle East and elsewhere. The Yom Kippur War of 1973, a surprise attack by Egypt and Syria against Israel, brought the world to the brink of a wider conflict. The existing diplomatic channels proved inadequate to manage the crisis. Kissinger recognized the urgent need for direct, high-level engagement, and he took matters into his own hands, literally. His tireless shuttling between warring capitals became his trademark, a visible demonstration of American commitment and a catalyst for negotiation. This approach was rooted in Kissinger's philosophy of "Realpolitik," prioritizing national interests and power dynamics above ideological considerations.
2. Key Strategies and Tactics Employed by Kissinger
Kissinger’s success wasn’t merely about his physical presence. He employed a number of sophisticated strategies:
Personal Diplomacy: He cultivated close relationships with key leaders, building trust and understanding, often circumventing bureaucratic obstacles. This personalized approach was crucial in gaining confidence and fostering compromise.
Linkage Strategy: He skillfully linked seemingly unrelated issues, using concessions in one area to secure progress in another. This intricate web of interconnected negotiations allowed him to achieve breakthroughs where direct approaches failed.
Quiet Diplomacy: Much of his work was conducted behind closed doors, away from the glare of public scrutiny and media pressure. This allowed for frank discussions and facilitated compromises that might have been impossible in a more transparent environment.
Exploiting Power Dynamics: Kissinger expertly identified and leveraged existing power imbalances, using American influence to nudge negotiations in favorable directions.
Managing Expectations: He carefully calibrated his public statements and pronouncements to manage expectations and avoid jeopardizing delicate negotiations.
3. Case Studies: Egypt, Israel, and the Arab World
Kissinger's most significant applications of Shuttle Diplomacy involved the Middle East. His efforts led to the disengagement agreements between Israel and its Arab neighbors following the Yom Kippur War. These agreements, while far from a complete peace settlement, significantly de-escalated tensions and averted further bloodshed. He facilitated separate agreements with Egypt (1973-75) and Syria (1974), demonstrating his ability to negotiate with different parties simultaneously, achieving incremental progress towards a more stable regional order. This required meticulous planning, strategic concessions, and an acute understanding of the various players’ motivations and vulnerabilities.
4. Successes and Failures: A Balanced Assessment
While Shuttle Diplomacy yielded significant successes in the Middle East, it wasn't without its flaws. The agreements achieved were often fragile and didn't address the underlying causes of conflict. Critics point to the long-term consequences of these limited agreements, arguing that they postponed rather than resolved the fundamental issues. Furthermore, Kissinger's secretive approach and emphasis on Realpolitik raised ethical concerns, particularly regarding human rights and the potential for undermining democratic processes. The strategic use of covert actions and support for authoritarian regimes also remain controversial aspects of his legacy.
5. The Enduring Legacy: Influence on Modern Diplomacy
Despite its controversies, Kissinger's Shuttle Diplomacy left an indelible mark on international relations. The concept of personal diplomacy, strategic linkage, and quiet negotiations remains relevant today. The ability to navigate complex geopolitical landscapes, fostering dialogue and forging compromise in crisis situations, continues to be a crucial skill for diplomats. His pragmatic approach, while controversial, highlights the complexities of foreign policy and the need for adapting strategies to achieve national interests in a constantly evolving global arena. However, the ethical considerations and potential for unintended consequences associated with Realpolitik need to be carefully examined and addressed in the application of such strategies in modern contexts.
6. Conclusion: A Complex and Contested Legacy
Henry Kissinger's Shuttle Diplomacy is a complex and contested legacy. It was a product of its time, reflecting both the opportunities and the limitations of the Cold War era. While achieving remarkable successes in de-escalating regional conflicts, it also raised important ethical and strategic questions about the methods and consequences of Realpolitik. Its enduring legacy lies not only in its immediate impact but in its contribution to the evolving practice of diplomacy, reminding us of the importance of personal engagement, strategic negotiation, and the constant need to balance national interests with broader moral considerations in the pursuit of peace.
Book Outline: Kissinger's Shuttle Diplomacy: A Cold War Masterpiece
I. Introduction:
Defining Shuttle Diplomacy
Kissinger's Background and Approach
The Cold War Context
Overview of the Book's Structure
II. The Yom Kippur War and its Aftermath:
The outbreak of the war and its global implications
Kissinger's immediate response and the shift to Shuttle Diplomacy
Initial negotiations and challenges
III. Negotiations with Egypt and Israel:
The First Disengagement Agreement (1974)
The Second Disengagement Agreement (1975)
Analysis of the strategies employed
IV. Negotiations with Syria and Other Arab States:
The complexities of negotiating with multiple actors
Limited success and the challenges faced
Lessons learned
V. The Broader Context of Shuttle Diplomacy:
The role of the United States in the Middle East
The interplay of domestic and international politics
Kissinger's relationship with key leaders
VI. Critical Analysis and Evaluation:
Successes and failures of Shuttle Diplomacy
Ethical considerations and controversies
Long-term impact and legacies
VII. Conclusion:
Lasting significance of Kissinger's diplomatic approach
Relevance to contemporary diplomacy
Further research areas
(Note: The above outline would be expanded upon extensively in a full-length book. The below expands on just a few key points to demonstrate how each section would be elaborated.)
Expansion of Outline Points:
(II. The Yom Kippur War and its Aftermath): This section would delve deeper into the military aspects of the Yom Kippur War, its impact on the global balance of power, and the initial responses from the US and the Soviet Union. It would detail the sense of crisis that prompted Kissinger's intervention and provide a more detailed account of the initial diplomatic failures that led to the adoption of Shuttle Diplomacy.
(III. Negotiations with Egypt and Israel): This section would provide a step-by-step account of the negotiations leading up to the First and Second Disengagement Agreements. It would explain the concessions made by both sides, the role of intermediaries, and the delicate balancing act required to achieve a fragile peace.
(VI. Critical Analysis and Evaluation): This section would critically assess Kissinger's methods and provide counterpoints to the common positive narrative. It would discuss the limitations of Shuttle Diplomacy, the ethical dilemmas surrounding his approach, and its long-term consequences for the region.
FAQs:
1. What was Kissinger's main goal in employing Shuttle Diplomacy? His primary goal was to prevent a wider war in the Middle East and stabilize the region, primarily through separating warring factions.
2. Was Shuttle Diplomacy successful? It achieved short-term successes in de-escalating tensions and brokering disengagement agreements, but its long-term impact is debated.
3. What were the ethical concerns surrounding Kissinger's methods? Critics raised concerns about secrecy, support for authoritarian regimes, and disregard for human rights in certain situations.
4. How did Kissinger build trust with conflicting parties? Through personal diplomacy, face-to-face meetings, and a strategic understanding of each party's needs and motivations.
5. What is Realpolitik, and how did it influence Kissinger's approach? Realpolitik is a pragmatic approach to foreign policy that prioritizes national interests and power dynamics over ideology.
6. Did Shuttle Diplomacy resolve the underlying issues in the Middle East? No, it mainly addressed immediate military concerns and postponed the resolution of fundamental issues.
7. What is the lasting legacy of Shuttle Diplomacy? It demonstrated the importance of personal diplomacy, strategic linkage, and quiet negotiations in international relations.
8. How does Shuttle Diplomacy compare to other forms of diplomacy? It differs through its intensive, personal, and often secret nature, contrasted with more formal, multilateral approaches.
9. What are some of the criticisms leveled against Kissinger's actions? Critics condemn his secrecy, his support for authoritarian regimes, and the perceived lack of attention to human rights concerns during his negotiations.
Related Articles:
1. The Yom Kippur War: A Turning Point in the Cold War: This article would explore the war's impact on superpower relations and the global strategic landscape.
2. Henry Kissinger: A Controversial Legacy: This piece would explore Kissinger's life and career, highlighting both his accomplishments and the ethical dilemmas surrounding his actions.
3. Realpolitik in International Relations: A discussion of the theory and practice of Realpolitik in foreign policy.
4. The Israeli-Egyptian Peace Treaty of 1979: A detailed analysis of Camp David Accords and their significance.
5. The Arab-Israeli Conflict: A Century of Conflict: An overview of the history of the conflict and its roots.
6. The Role of the United States in the Middle East: An exploration of US foreign policy in the region.
7. The End of the Cold War: A discussion of the events that led to the end of the Cold War.
8. Diplomacy and Negotiation: Strategies and Tactics: An examination of different approaches to diplomacy and negotiation.
9. The Ethics of Foreign Policy: A critical analysis of ethical considerations in foreign policy decision-making.
| kissinger shuttle diplomacy: Master of the Game Martin Indyk, 2021-10-26 A perceptive and provocative history of Henry Kissinger's diplomatic negotiations in the Middle East that illuminates the unique challenges and barriers Kissinger and his successors have faced in their attempts to broker peace between Israel and its Arab neighbors. “A wealth of lessons for today, not only about the challenges in that region but also about the art of diplomacy . . . the drama, dazzling maneuvers, and grand strategic vision.”—Walter Isaacson, author of The Code Breaker More than twenty years have elapsed since the United States last brokered a peace agreement between the Israelis and Palestinians. In that time, three presidents have tried and failed. Martin Indyk—a former United States ambassador to Israel and special envoy for the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations in 2013—has experienced these political frustrations and disappointments firsthand. Now, in an attempt to understand the arc of American diplomatic influence in the Middle East, he returns to the origins of American-led peace efforts and to the man who created the Middle East peace process—Henry Kissinger. Based on newly available documents from American and Israeli archives, extensive interviews with Kissinger, and Indyk's own interactions with some of the main players, the author takes readers inside the negotiations. Here is a roster of larger-than-life characters—Anwar Sadat, Golda Meir, Moshe Dayan, Yitzhak Rabin, Hafez al-Assad, and Kissinger himself. Indyk's account is both that of a historian poring over the records of these events, as well as an inside player seeking to glean lessons for Middle East peacemaking. He makes clear that understanding Kissinger's design for Middle East peacemaking is key to comprehending how to—and how not to—make peace. |
| kissinger shuttle diplomacy: Diplomacy Henry Kissinger, 2012-10-01 'Kissinger's absorbing book tackles head-on some of the toughest questions of our time . . . Its pages sparkle with insight' Simon Schama in the NEW YORKER Spanning more than three centuries, from Cardinal Richelieu to the fragility of the 'New World Order', DIPLOMACY is the now-classic history of international relations by the former Secretary of State and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. Kissinger's intimate portraits of world leaders, many from personal experience, provide the reader with a unique insight into what really goes on -- and why -- behind the closed doors of the corridors of power. 'Budding diplomats and politicians should read it as avidly as their predecessors read Machiavelli' Douglas Hurd in the DAILY TELEGRAPH 'If you want to pay someone a compliment, give them Henry Kissinger's DIPLOMACY ... It is certainly one of the best, and most enjoyable [books] on international relations past and present ... DIPLOMACY should be read for the sheer historical sweep, the characterisations, the story-telling, the ability to look at large parts of the world as a whole' Malcolm Rutherford in the FINANCIAL TIMES |
| kissinger shuttle diplomacy: Henry Kissinger and American Power Thomas A. Schwartz, 2020-08-25 [Henry Kissinger and American Power] effectively separates the man from the myths. —The Christian Science Monitor | Best books of August 2020 The definitive biography of Henry Kissinger—at least for those who neither revere nor revile him Over the past six decades, Henry Kissinger has been America’s most consistently praised—and reviled—public figure. He was hailed as a “miracle worker” for his peacemaking in the Middle East, pursuit of détente with the Soviet Union, negotiation of an end to the Vietnam War, and secret plan to open the United States to China. He was assailed from the left and from the right for his indifference to human rights, complicity in the pointless sacrifice of American and Vietnamese lives, and reliance on deception and intrigue. Was he a brilliant master strategist—“the 20th century’s greatest 19th century statesman”—or a cold-blooded monster who eroded America’s moral standing for the sake of self-promotion? In this masterfully researched biography, the renowned diplomatic historian Thomas Schwartz offers an authoritative, and fair-minded, answer to this question. While other biographers have engaged in hagiography or demonology, Schwartz takes a measured view of his subject. He recognizes Kissinger’s successes and acknowledges that Kissinger thought seriously and with great insight about the foreign policy issues of his time, while also recognizing his failures, his penchant for backbiting, and his reliance on ingratiating and fawning praise of the president as a source of power. Throughout, Schwartz stresses Kissinger’s artful invention of himself as a celebrity diplomat and his domination of the medium of television news. He also notes Kissinger’s sensitivity to domestic and partisan politics, complicating—and undermining—the image of the far-seeing statesman who stands above the squabbles of popular strife. Rounded and textured, and rich with new insights into key dilemmas of American power, Henry Kissinger and American Power stands as an essential guide to a man whose legacy is as complex as the last sixty years of US history itself. |
| kissinger shuttle diplomacy: Kissinger the Negotiator James K. Sebenius, R. Nicholas Burns, Robert H. Mnookin, 2018-05-08 Foreword by Henry Kissinger In this groundbreaking, definitive guide to the art of negotiation, three Harvard professors—all experienced negotiators—offer a comprehensive examination of one of the most successful dealmakers of all time. Politicians, world leaders, and business executives around the world—including every President from John F. Kennedy to Donald J. Trump—have sought the counsel of Henry Kissinger, a brilliant diplomat and historian whose unprecedented achievements as a negotiator have been universally acknowledged. Now, for the first time, Kissinger the Negotiator provides a clear analysis of Kissinger’s overall approach to making deals and resolving conflicts—expertise that holds powerful and enduring lessons. James K. Sebenius (Harvard Business School), R. Nicholas Burns (Harvard Kennedy School of Government), and Robert H. Mnookin (Harvard Law School) crystallize the key elements of Kissinger’s approach, based on in-depth interviews with the former secretary of state himself about some of his most difficult negotiations, an extensive study of his record, and many independent sources. Taut and instructive, Kissinger the Negotiator mines the long and fruitful career of this elder statesman and shows how his strategies apply not only to contemporary diplomatic challenges but also to other realms of negotiation, including business, public policy, and law. Essential reading for current and future leaders, Kissinger the Negotiator is an invaluable guide to reaching agreements in challenging situations. |
| kissinger shuttle diplomacy: Israel, the Embattled Ally Nadav Safran, 1981 Through thirty turbulent years, the United States has been deeply enmeshed in Israel's destiny. Seldom in the history of international relations has such a world power been involved so intensely for so long with such a small power. How this phenomenon came to pass and how it will affect the future are explained in this compelling history of Israel and its relations with the United States—from the 1947 United Nations resolution through Kissinger's shuttle diplomacy to Carter's peace campaign. To form the backdrop for this extraordinary relationship, Nadav Safran paints a detailed portrait of the historical forces that combined to create the Jewish state. He unfolds panel after panel of Israeli life—its physical environment, people, economy, politics, and religion. He examines Israel's responses to the many security crises it has faced since becoming a nation, and presents a clear and thorough exposition of its defense strategy and descriptions of all its wars. Safran then presents his brilliant analysis of Israel and America in international politics. Cutting through the tangle of the Arab–Israeli conflict, the East–West struggle, the disagreement among Western powers, the conflicts within and among the Arab states, and the impact of special interest groups in the United States on its foreign policy, Safran deftly pursues fluctuations in the American–Israeli relationship as it moved from simple friendship to an alliance of friends. A concluding chapter recapitulates the highlights of that evolution and projects its relevance for the future of the Middle East and American–Israeli relations. |
| kissinger shuttle diplomacy: Years of Upheaval Henry Kissinger, 2011-05-24 In this second volume of Henry Kissinger’s “endlessly fascinating memoirs” (The New York Times), Kissinger recounts his years as President Nixon’s Secretary of State from 1972 to 1974, including the ending of the Vietnam War, the 1973 Middle East War and oil embargo, Watergate, and Nixon’s resignation. Years of Upheaval opens with Dr. Kissinger being appointed Secretary of State. Among other events of these turbulent years that he recounts are his trip to Hanoi after the Vietnam cease-fire, his efforts to settle the war in Cambodia, the “Year of Europe,” two Nixon-Brezhnev summit meetings and the controversies over arms control and détente, the military alert and showdown with the Soviet Union over the Middle East war, the subsequent oil crisis, the origins of shuttle diplomacy in the Middle East, the fall of Salvador Allende in Chile, and the tumultuous events surrounding Nixon’s resignation. Throughout are candid appraisals of world leaders, including Nixon, Golda Meir, Anwar Sadat, King Faisal, Hafez al-Asad, Chairman Mao, Leonid Brezhnev, Willy Brandt, Helmut Schmidt, Georges Pompidou, and many more. At once illuminating, fascinating, and profound, Years of Upheaval is a lasting contribution to the history of our time by one of its chief protagonists. |
| kissinger shuttle diplomacy: Kissinger's Shadow Greg Grandin, 2015-08-25 A new account of America's most controversial diplomat that moves beyond praise or condemnation to reveal Kissinger as the architect of America's current imperial stance In his fascinating new book Kissinger's Shadow, acclaimed historian Greg Grandin argues that to understand the crisis of contemporary America—its never-ending wars abroad and political polarization at home—we have to understand Henry Kissinger. Examining Kissinger's own writings, as well as a wealth of newly declassified documents, Grandin reveals how Richard Nixon's top foreign policy advisor, even as he was presiding over defeat in Vietnam and a disastrous, secret, and illegal war in Cambodia, was helping to revive a militarized version of American exceptionalism centered on an imperial presidency. Believing that reality could be bent to his will, insisting that intuition is more important in determining policy than hard facts, and vowing that past mistakes should never hinder future bold action, Kissinger anticipated, even enabled, the ascendance of the neoconservative idealists who took America into crippling wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Going beyond accounts focusing either on Kissinger's crimes or accomplishments, Grandin offers a compelling new interpretation of the diplomat's continuing influence on how the United States views its role in the world. |
| kissinger shuttle diplomacy: Paris 1919 Margaret MacMillan, 2007-12-18 A landmark work of narrative history, Paris 1919 is the first full-scale treatment of the Peace Conference in more than twenty-five years. It offers a scintillating view of those dramatic and fateful days when much of the modern world was sketched out, when countries were created—Iraq, Yugoslavia, Israel—whose troubles haunt us still. Winner of the Samuel Johnson Prize • Winner of the PEN Hessell Tiltman Prize • Winner of the Duff Cooper Prize Between January and July 1919, after “the war to end all wars,” men and women from around the world converged on Paris to shape the peace. Center stage, for the first time in history, was an American president, Woodrow Wilson, who with his Fourteen Points seemed to promise to so many people the fulfillment of their dreams. Stern, intransigent, impatient when it came to security concerns and wildly idealistic in his dream of a League of Nations that would resolve all future conflict peacefully, Wilson is only one of the larger-than-life characters who fill the pages of this extraordinary book. David Lloyd George, the gregarious and wily British prime minister, brought Winston Churchill and John Maynard Keynes. Lawrence of Arabia joined the Arab delegation. Ho Chi Minh, a kitchen assistant at the Ritz, submitted a petition for an independent Vietnam. For six months, Paris was effectively the center of the world as the peacemakers carved up bankrupt empires and created new countries. This book brings to life the personalities, ideals, and prejudices of the men who shaped the settlement. They pushed Russia to the sidelines, alienated China, and dismissed the Arabs. They struggled with the problems of Kosovo, of the Kurds, and of a homeland for the Jews. The peacemakers, so it has been said, failed dismally; above all they failed to prevent another war. Margaret MacMillan argues that they have unfairly been made the scapegoats for the mistakes of those who came later. She refutes received ideas about the path from Versailles to World War II and debunks the widely accepted notion that reparations imposed on the Germans were in large part responsible for the Second World War. Praise for Paris 1919 “It’s easy to get into a war, but ending it is a more arduous matter. It was never more so than in 1919, at the Paris Conference. . . . This is an enthralling book: detailed, fair, unfailingly lively. Professor MacMillan has that essential quality of the historian, a narrative gift.” —Allan Massie, The Daily Telegraph (London) |
| kissinger shuttle diplomacy: American Presidents and the Middle East George Lenczowski, 1990 This is a study of the role the presidents of the United States have played in the formulation of a American policies toward the Middle East, a region of key strategic importance abounding in complex international conflicts and revolutionary changes. |
| kissinger shuttle diplomacy: Innocent Abroad Martin Indyk, 2009-01-06 Making peace in the long-troubled Middle East is likely to be one of the top priorities of the next American president. He will need to take account of the important lessons from past attempts, which are described and analyzed here in a gripping book by a renowned expert who served twice as U.S. ambassador to Israel and as Middle East adviser to President Clinton. Martin Indyk draws on his many years of intense involvement in the region to provide the inside story of the last time the United States employed sustained diplomacy to end the Arab-Israeli conflict and change the behavior of rogue regimes in Iraq and Iran. Innocent Abroad is an insightful history and a poignant memoir. Indyk provides a fascinating examination of the ironic consequences when American naïveté meets Middle Eastern cynicism in the region's political bazaars. He dissects the very different strategies of Bill Clinton and George W. Bush to explain why they both faced such difficulties remaking the Middle East in their images of a more peaceful or democratic place. He provides new details of the breakdown of the Arab-Israeli peace talks at Camp David, of the CIA's failure to overthrow Saddam Hussein, and of Clinton's attempts to negotiate with Iran's president. Indyk takes us inside the Oval Office, the Situation Room, the palaces of Arab potentates, and the offices of Israeli prime ministers. He draws intimate portraits of the American, Israeli, and Arab leaders he worked with, including Israel's Yitzhak Rabin, Ehud Barak, and Ariel Sharon; the PLO's Yasser Arafat; Egypt's Hosni Mubarak; and Syria's Hafez al-Asad. He describes in vivid detail high-level meetings, demonstrating how difficult it is for American presidents to understand the motives and intentions of Middle Eastern leaders and how easy it is for them to miss those rare moments when these leaders are willing to act in ways that can produce breakthroughs to peace. Innocent Abroad is an extraordinarily candid and enthralling account, crucially important in grasping the obstacles that have confounded the efforts of recent presidents. As a new administration takes power, this experienced diplomat distills the lessons of past failures to chart a new way forward that will be required reading. |
| kissinger shuttle diplomacy: Henry Kissinger Harvey Starr, 2014-07-15 Henry Kissinger conducted American foreign policy with a distinctive assurance and panache that gave dramatic force to his tenure as secretary of state. His was the shaping hand in decisions that led to detente with the Soviet Union, to opening relations with the People's Republic of China, and to shuttle diplomacy in the Middle East and the disengagement of Egypt and Israel during the 1973 war. Taking a fresh look at the statecraft of Henry Kissinger, Harvey Starr brings to bear a variety of analytical methods on data drawn from different stages in Kissinger's career to define and explain the beliefs and perceptions that formed the ground of his policy decisions. Using psychohistory and content analysis, Starr defines Kissinger's perceptions of his adversaries—the Soviet Union and Red China—and draws revealing comparisons between Kissinger and John Foster Dulles. Henry Kissinger: Perceptions of International Politics is an illuminating view of an important era in American diplomacy. |
| kissinger shuttle diplomacy: The Inevitability of Tragedy: Henry Kissinger and His World Barry Gewen, 2020-04-28 A new portrait of Henry Kissinger focusing on the fundamental ideas underlying his policies: Realism, balance of power, and national interest. Few public officials have provoked such intense controversy as Henry Kissinger. During his time in the Nixon and Ford administrations, he came to be admired and hated in equal measure. Notoriously, he believed that foreign affairs ought to be based primarily on the power relationships of a situation, not simply on ethics. He went so far as to argue that under certain circumstances America had to protect its national interests even if that meant repressing other countries’ attempts at democracy. For this reason, many today on both the right and left dismiss him as a latter-day Machiavelli, ignoring the breadth and complexity of his thought. With The Inevitability of Tragedy, Barry Gewen corrects this shallow view, presenting the fascinating story of Kissinger’s development as both a strategist and an intellectual and examining his unique role in government through his ideas. It analyzes his contentious policies in Vietnam and Chile, guided by a fresh understanding of his definition of Realism, the belief that world politics is based on an inevitable, tragic competition for power. Crucially, Gewen places Kissinger’s pessimistic thought in a European context. He considers how Kissinger was deeply impacted by his experience as a refugee from Nazi Germany, and explores the links between his notions of power and those of his mentor, Hans Morgenthau—the father of Realism—as well as those of two other German-Jewish émigrés who shared his concerns about the weaknesses of democracy: Leo Strauss and Hannah Arendt. The Inevitability of Tragedy offers a thoughtful perspective on the origins of Kissinger’s sober worldview and argues that a reconsideration of his career is essential at a time when American foreign policy lacks direction. |
| kissinger shuttle diplomacy: Kissinger on Kissinger Winston Lord, Henry Kissinger, 2019-05-14 In a series of riveting interviews, America's senior statesman discusses the challenges of directing foreign policy during times of great global tension. As National Security Advisor to Richard Nixon, Henry Kissinger transformed America's approach to diplomacy with China, the USSR, Vietnam, and the Middle East, laying the foundations for geopolitics as we know them today. Nearly fifty years later, escalating tensions between the US, China, and Russia are threatening a swift return to the same diplomatic game of tug-of-war that Kissinger played so masterfully. Kissinger on Kissinger is a series of faithfully transcribed interviews conducted by the elder statesman's longtime associate, Winston Lord, which captures Kissinger's thoughts on the specific challenges that he faced during his tenure as NSA, his general advice on leadership and international relations, and stunning portraits of the larger-than-life world leaders of the era. The result is a frank and well-informed overview of US foreign policy in the first half of the 70s—essential reading for anyone hoping to understand tomorrow's global challenges. |
| kissinger shuttle diplomacy: The Trial of Henry Kissinger Christopher Hitchens, 2002 In this incendiary book, Hitchens takes the floor as prosecuting counsel and mounts a devastating indictment of Henry Kissinger, whose ambitions and ruthlessness have directly resulted in both individual murders and widespread, indiscriminate slaughter. |
| kissinger shuttle diplomacy: Kissinger Walter Isaacson, 2013-05-21 The definitive biography of Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and how his ideas still resonate in the world today from the bestselling author of Leonardo da Vinci and Steve Jobs. By the time Henry Kissinger was made secretary of state in 1973, he had become, according to the Gallup Poll, the most admired person in America and one of the most unlikely celebrities ever to capture the world's imagination. Yet Kissinger was also reviled by large segments of the American public, ranging from liberal intellectuals to conservative activists. Kissinger explores the relationship between this complex man’s personality and the foreign policy he pursued. Drawing on extensive interviews with Kissinger as well as 150 other sources, including US presidents and his business clients, this first full-length biography makes use of many of Kissinger’s private papers and classified memos to tell his uniquely American story. The result is an intimate narrative, filled with surprising revelations, that takes this grandly colorful statesman from his childhood as a persecuted Jew in Nazi Germany, through his tortured relationship with Richard Nixon, to his later years as a globe-trotting business consultant. |
| kissinger shuttle diplomacy: The Other Arab-Israeli Conflict Steven L. Spiegel, 1985 Discusses the history of and analyzes the factors shaping American policies in the Middle East. |
| kissinger shuttle diplomacy: Modern American Diplomacy John Martin Carroll, George C. Herring, 1996 Reflects various advances in scholarship. |
| kissinger shuttle diplomacy: The Flawed Architect Jussi M. Hanhimaki, 2004-09-09 Henry Kissinger dominated American foreign relations like no other figure in recent history. He negotiated an end to American involvement in the Vietnam War, opened relations with Communist China, and orchestrated détente with the Soviet Union. Yet he is also the man behind the secret bombing of Cambodia and policies leading to the overthrow of Chile's President Salvador Allende. Which is more accurate, the picture of Kissinger the skilled diplomat or Kissinger the war criminal? In The Flawed Architect, the first major reassessment of Kissinger in over a decade, historian Jussi Hanhimaki paints a subtle, carefully composed portrait of America's most famous and infamous statesman. Drawing on extensive research from newly declassified files, the author follows Kissinger from his beginnings in the Nixon administration up to the current controversy fed by Christopher Hitchens over whether Kissinger is a war criminal. Hanhimaki guides the reader through White House power struggles and debates behind the Cambodia and Laos invasions, the search for a strategy in Vietnam, the breakthrough with China, and the unfolding of Soviet-American detente. Here, too, are many other international crises of the period--the Indo-Pakistani War, the Yom Kippur War, the Angolan civil war--all set against the backdrop of Watergate. Along the way, Hanhimaki sheds light on Kissinger's personal flaws--he was obsessed with secrecy and bureaucratic infighting in an administration that self-destructed in its abuse of power--as well as his great strengths as a diplomat. We see Kissinger negotiating, threatening and joking with virtually all of the key foreign leaders of the 1970s, from Mao to Brezhnev and Anwar Sadat to Golda Meir. This well researched account brings to life the complex nature of American foreign policymaking during the Kissinger years. It will be the standard work on Kissinger for years to come. |
| kissinger shuttle diplomacy: Nixon and Kissinger Robert Dallek, 2009-10-13 The renowned scholar’s epic dual biography of the 37th president and his powerful secretary of state: “A classic work of contemporary American history” (The Los Angeles Times). Working side by side in the White House, Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger were two of the most compelling, contradictory, and powerful figures in the second half of the twentieth century. While their personalities could hardly have seemed more different, both were largely self-made men, brimming with ambition, driven by their own inner demons, and often ruthless in pursuit of their goals. Tapping into a wealth of recently declassified archives, Robert Dallek uncovers fascinating details about Nixon and Kissinger’s tumultuous personal relationship and brilliantly analyzes their shared roles in monumental historical events—including the nightmare of Vietnam, the unprecedented opening to China, détente with the Soviet Union, the Yom Kippur War in the Middle East, the disastrous overthrow of Allende in Chile, and the scandal of Watergate. |
| kissinger shuttle diplomacy: The African Foreign Policy of Secretary of State Henry Kissinger Hanes Walton, Robert L. Stevenson, James Bernard Rosser, 2007 The African Foreign Policy of Secretary of State Henry Kissinger outlines in clear, comprehensive terms the details of Secretary of State Henry Kissinger's foreign policy toward Africa and how that policy related to other aspects of his global viewpoint. This book presents an intellectual evaluation of these governmental sources to determine the kinds of foreign policy proposals and programs that Kissinger developed for the various crises and problems which were under way in that vast continent. |
| kissinger shuttle diplomacy: Years of Renewal Henry Kissinger, 2011-06-21 Perhaps the best-known American diplomatist of the twentieth century, Henry Kissinger is a major figure in world history, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, and arguably one of the most brilliant minds ever placed at the service of American foreign policy, as well as one of the shrewdest, best-informed, and most articulate men ever to occupy a position of power in Washington. The eagerly awaited third and final volume of his memoirs completes a major work of contemporary history. It is at once an important historical document and a brilliantly told narrative of almost Shakespearean intensity, full of startling insights, unusual (and often unsparing) candor, and a sweeping sense of history. Years of Renewal is the triumphant conclusion of a major achievement and a book that will stand the test of time as a historical document of the first rank. |
| kissinger shuttle diplomacy: Decade of Decisions William B. Quandt, 1977 Lektor Quandt analyserer formuleringen af amerikansk politik over for den arabisk-israelske konflikt. |
| kissinger shuttle diplomacy: Thicker Than Oil Rachel Bronson, 2008-06-05 For fifty-five years, the United States and Saudi Arabia were solid partners. Then came the 9/11 attacks, which sorely tested that relationship. In Thicker than Oil, Rachel Bronson reveals why the partnership became so intimate and how the countries' shared interests sowed the seeds of today's most pressing problem--Islamic radicalism. Drawing on a wide range of archival material, declassified documents, and interviews with leading Saudi and American officials, and including many colorful stories of diplomatic adventures and misadventures, Bronson chronicles a history of close, and always controversial, contacts. She argues that contrary to popular belief the relationship was never simply about oil for security. Saudi Arabia's geographic location and religiously motivated foreign policy figured prominently in American efforts to defeat godless communism. From Africa to Afghanistan, Egypt to Nicaragua, the two worked to beat back Soviet expansion. But decisions made for hardheaded Cold War purposes left behind a legacy that today enflames the Middle East. Looking forward, Bronson outlines the challenges confronting the relationship. The Saudi government faces a zealous internal opposition bent on America's and Saudi Arabia's destruction. Yet from the perspective of both countries, the status quo is clearly unsustainable. |
| kissinger shuttle diplomacy: Kissinger Alistair Horne, 2009-06-16 A portrait of the controversial presidential advisor during a critical year in his career covers a wide range of topics from the signing of the pact to end the war in Vietnam and his appointment as secretary of state to his receipt of the Nobel Peace Prize and the Watergate scandal. |
| kissinger shuttle diplomacy: Kissinger Niall Ferguson, 2015-09-29 From the bestselling author of The Ascent of Money and The Square and the Tower, the definitive biography of Henry Kissinger, based on unprecedented access to his private papers. Winner of the Council on Foreign Relations Arthur Ross Book Award No American statesman has been as revered or as reviled as Henry Kissinger. Once hailed as “Super K”—the “indispensable man” whose advice has been sought by every president from Kennedy to Obama—he has also been hounded by conspiracy theorists, scouring his every “telcon” for evidence of Machiavellian malfeasance. Yet as Niall Ferguson shows in this magisterial two-volume biography, drawing not only on Kissinger’s hitherto closed private papers but also on documents from more than a hundred archives around the world, the idea of Kissinger as the ruthless arch-realist is based on a profound misunderstanding. The first half of Kissinger’s life is usually skimmed over as a quintessential tale of American ascent: the Jewish refugee from Hitler’s Germany who made it to the White House. But in this first of two volumes, Ferguson shows that what Kissinger achieved before his appointment as Richard Nixon’s national security adviser was astonishing in its own right. Toiling as a teenager in a New York factory, he studied indefatigably at night. He was drafted into the U.S. infantry and saw action at the Battle of the Bulge—as well as the liberation of a concentration camp—but ended his army career interrogating Nazis. It was at Harvard that Kissinger found his vocation. Having immersed himself in the philosophy of Kant and the diplomacy of Metternich, he shot to celebrity by arguing for “limited nuclear war.” Nelson Rockefeller hired him. Kennedy called him to Camelot. Yet Kissinger’s rise was anything but irresistible. Dogged by press gaffes and disappointed by “Rocky,” Kissinger seemed stuck—until a trip to Vietnam changed everything. The Idealist is the story of one of the most important strategic thinkers America has ever produced. It is also a political Bildungsroman, explaining how “Dr. Strangelove” ended up as consigliere to a politician he had always abhorred. Like Ferguson’s classic two-volume history of the House of Rothschild, Kissinger sheds dazzling new light on an entire era. The essential account of an extraordinary life, it recasts the Cold War world. |
| kissinger shuttle diplomacy: Peace Process William B. Quandt, 2001 One message of Peace Process is that the United States has had, and will continue to have, a crucial role in helping Israel and her Arab neighbors reach peace. If American presidents play their role with skill, they can make a lasting contribution. But just as likely, they may misread the realities of the Middle East and add to the impasse by their own errors. |
| kissinger shuttle diplomacy: The Yom Kippur War Abraham Rabinovich, 2007-12-18 An updated edition that sheds new light on one of the most dramatic reversals of military fortune in modern history. The easing of Israeli military censorship after four decades has enabled Abraham Rabinovich to offer fresh insights into this fiercest of Israel-Arab conflicts. A surprise Arab attack on two fronts on the holiest day of the Jewish calendar, with Israel’s reserves un-mobilized, triggered apocalyptic visions in Israel, euphoria in the Arab world, and fraught debates on both sides. Rabinovich, who covered the war for The Jerusalem Post, draws on extensive interviews and primary source material to shape his enthralling narrative. We learn of two Egyptian nationals, working separately for the Mossad, who supplied Israel with key information that helped change the course of the war; of Defense Minister Moshe Dayan’s proposal for a nuclear “demonstration” to warn off the Arabs; and of Chief of Staff David Elazar’s conclusion on the fifth day of battle that Israel could not win. Newly available transcripts enable us to follow the decision-making process in real time from the prime minister’s office to commanders studying maps in the field. After almost overrunning the Golan Heights, the Syrian attack is broken in desperate battles. And as Israel regains its psychological balance, General Ariel Sharon leads a nighttime counterattack across the Suez Canal through a narrow hole in the Egyptian line -- the turning point of the war. |
| kissinger shuttle diplomacy: Diplomatic Theory from Machiavelli to Kissinger G. Berridge, M. Keens-Soper, T. Otte, 2001-03-23 This book offers an introductory guide for students to four centuries of diplomatic thought. Since diplomacy as we know it was created during the Renaissance in Italy, a number of major figures have reflected on the place of diplomacy in foreign affairs and the problems associated with its pursuit. These include statesmen, international lawyers and historians, most of whom had experience as diplomats of the first or second rank. This book examines the thought of some of the most important of them, from Niccolò Machiavelli in the early sixteenth century to Henry Kissinger in the late twentieth century. |
| kissinger shuttle diplomacy: Imperfect Strangers Salim Yaqub, 2016-08-10 In Imperfect Strangers, Salim Yaqub argues that the 1970s were a pivotal decade for U.S.-Arab relations, whether at the upper levels of diplomacy, in street-level interactions, or in the realm of the imagination. In those years, Americans and Arabs came to know each other as never before. With Western Europe’s imperial legacy fading in the Middle East, American commerce and investment spread throughout the Arab world. The United States strengthened its strategic ties to some Arab states, even as it drew closer to Israel. Maneuvering Moscow to the sidelines, Washington placed itself at the center of Arab-Israeli diplomacy. Meanwhile, the rise of international terrorism, the Arab oil embargo and related increases in the price of oil, and expanding immigration from the Middle East forced Americans to pay closer attention to the Arab world. Yaqub combines insights from diplomatic, political, cultural, and immigration history to chronicle the activities of a wide array of American and Arab actors—political leaders, diplomats, warriors, activists, scholars, businesspeople, novelists, and others. He shows that growing interdependence raised hopes for a broad political accommodation between the two societies. Yet a series of disruptions in the second half of the decade thwarted such prospects. Arabs recoiled from a U.S.-brokered peace process that fortified Israel’s occupation of Arab land. Americans grew increasingly resentful of Arab oil pressures, attitudes dovetailing with broader anti-Muslim sentiments aroused by the Iranian hostage crisis. At the same time, elements of the U.S. intelligentsia became more respectful of Arab perspectives as a newly assertive Arab American community emerged into political life. These patterns left a contradictory legacy of estrangement and accommodation that continued in later decades and remains with us today. |
| kissinger shuttle diplomacy: Outpost Christopher R. Hill, 2014 An inside the room memoir from one of our most distinguished ambassadors who--in a career of service to the country--was sent to some of the most dangerous outposts of American diplomacy. From the wars in the Balkans to the brutality of North Korea to the endless war in Iraq, this is the real life of an American diplomat. Hill was on the front lines in the Balkans at the breakup of Yugoslavia. He takes us from one-on-one meetings with the dictator Milosevic, to Bosnia and Kosovo, to the Dayton conference, where a truce was brokered. Hill draws upon lessons learned as a Peace Corps volunteer in Cameroon early on in his career and details his prodigious experience as a US ambassador. He was the first American Ambassador to Macedonia; Ambassador to Poland, where he also served in the depth of the cold war; Ambassador to South Korea and chief disarmament negotiator in North Korea; and Hillary Clinton's hand-picked Ambassador to Iraq. Hill's account is an adventure story of danger, loss of comrades, high stakes negotiations, and imperfect options. There are fascinating portraits of war criminals (Mladic, Karadzic), of presidents and vice presidents (Clinton, Bush and Cheney, and Obama), of Secretaries of State (Madeleine Albright, Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice, and Hillary Clinton), of Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, and of Ambassadors Richard Holbrooke and Lawrence Eagleburger. Hill writes bluntly about the bureaucratic warfare in DC and expresses strong criticism of America's aggressive interventions and wars of choice.-- |
| kissinger shuttle diplomacy: Egypt’s Diplomacy in War, Peace and Transition Nabil Fahmy, 2020-01-20 Written from the perspective of an insider of the most prominent events in the Middle East over the last fifty years, this book examines Egypt’s diplomacy in transformative times of war, peace and transition. The author offers unique insights, first-hand information, singular documents, critical and candid analysis, as well as case studies, richly sharing his experiences as the country’s Foreign Minister and ambassador. This project covers a wide range of issues including the Arab-Israeli peace process, the liberation of Kuwait, the invasion of Iraq, nuclear weapons proliferation in the region, relations with the United States, Russia and other major international and regional players. Most importantly, it offers a series of potential trajectories on the future of Egypt and its relations within the region and the world. This is an essential work for a number of audiences, including scholars, graduate students, researchers, as well as policy makers, and is strongly appealing for anyone who is interested in international relations and Middle Eastern politics. |
| kissinger shuttle diplomacy: The Kissinger Report: Nssm-200 Implications of Worldwide Population Growth for U.S. Security Interests Henry Kissinger, National Security Council, 2019-02-07 The Kissinger Report's purpose was to describe and analyze population growth, especially in the least developed countries (LDCs), and the implications for U.S. national security. |
| kissinger shuttle diplomacy: To End a War Richard Holbrooke, 1999-05-25 When President Clinton sent Richard Holbrooke to Bosnia as America's chief negotiator in late 1995, he took a gamble that would eventually redefine his presidency. But there was no saying then, at the height of the war, that Holbrooke's mission would succeed. The odds were strongly against it. As passionate as he was controversial, Holbrooke believed that the only way to bring peace to the Balkans was through a complex blend of American leadership, aggressive and creative diplomacy, and a willingness to use force, if necessary, in the cause for peace. This was not a universally popular view. Resistance was fierce within the United Nations and the chronically divided Contact Group, and in Washington, where many argued that the United States should not get more deeply involved. This book is Holbrooke's gripping inside account of his mission, of the decisive months when, belatedly and reluctantly but ultimately decisively, the United States reasserted its moral authority and leadership and ended Europe's worst war in over half a century. To End a War reveals many important new details of how America made this historic decision. What George F. Kennan has called Holbrooke's heroic efforts were shaped by the enormous tragedy with which the mission began, when three of his four team members were killed during their first attempt to reach Sarajevo. In Belgrade, Sarajevo, Zagreb, Paris, Athens, and Ankara, and throughout the dramatic roller-coaster ride at Dayton, he tirelessly imposed, cajoled, and threatened in the quest to stop the killing and forge a peace agreement. Holbrooke's portraits of the key actors, from officials in the White House and the Élysée Palace to the leaders in the Balkans, are sharp and unforgiving. His explanation of how the United States was finally forced to intervene breaks important new ground, as does his discussion of the near disaster in the early period of the implementation of the Dayton agreement. To End a War is a brilliant portrayal of high-wire, high-stakes diplomacy in one of the toughest negotiations of modern times. A classic account of the uses and misuses of American power, its lessons go far beyond the boundaries of the Balkans and provide a powerful argument for continued American leadership in the modern world. |
| kissinger shuttle diplomacy: A Path to Peace George J. Mitchell, Alon Sachar, 2016-11-29 The “illuminating” (Los Angeles Times) answer to why Israel and Palestine’s attempts at negotiation have failed and a practical, “admirably measured” (The New York Times) roadmap for bringing peace to the Middle East—by an impartial American diplomat experienced in solving international conflicts. George Mitchell knows how to bring peace to troubled regions. He was the primary architect of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement for peace in Northern Ireland. But when he served as US Special Envoy for Middle East Peace from 2009 to 2011—working to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict—diplomacy did not prevail. Now, for the first time, Mitchell offers his insider account of how the Israelis and the Palestinians have progressed (and regressed) in their negotiations through the years and outlines the specific concessions each side must make to finally achieve lasting peace. |
| kissinger shuttle diplomacy: The Yom Kippur War , 1974 Reports findings of a December 1973 Jerusalem Symposium assessing the trauma among the world's Jews (and non-Jews) during and following the October war. |
| kissinger shuttle diplomacy: The Edge of the Precipice Bouthaina Shaaban, 2017 |
| kissinger shuttle diplomacy: Our Man George Packer, 2019-05-07 *Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Biography* *Winner of the Los Angeles Times Prize for Biography* *Winner of the 2019 Hitchens Prize* Portrays Holbrooke in all of his endearing and exasperating self-willed glory...Both a sweeping diplomatic history and a Shakespearean tragicomedy... If you could read one book to comprehend American's foreign policy and its quixotic forays into quicksands over the past 50 years, this would be it.--Walter Isaacson, The New York Times Book Review By the end of the second page, maybe the third, you will be hooked...There never was a diplomat-activist quite like [Holbrooke], and there seldom has been a book quite like this -- sweeping and sentimental, beguiling and brutal, catty and critical, much like the man himself.--David M. Shribman, The Boston Globe Richard Holbrooke was brilliant, utterly self-absorbed, and possessed of almost inhuman energy and appetites. Admired and detested, he was the force behind the Dayton Accords that ended the Balkan wars, America's greatest diplomatic achievement in the post-Cold War era. His power lay in an utter belief in himself and his idea of a muscular, generous foreign policy. From his days as a young adviser in Vietnam to his last efforts to end the war in Afghanistan, Holbrooke embodied the postwar American impulse to take the lead on the global stage. But his sharp elbows and tireless self-promotion ensured that he never rose to the highest levels in government that he so desperately coveted. His story is thus the story of America during its era of supremacy: its strength, drive, and sense of possibility, as well as its penchant for overreach and heedless self-confidence. In Our Man, drawn from Holbrooke's diaries and papers, we are given a nonfiction narrative that is both intimate and epic in its revelatory portrait of this extraordinary and deeply flawed man and the elite spheres of society and government he inhabited. |
| kissinger shuttle diplomacy: A World Restored Henry Kissinger, 2017-04-07 Originally published in 1957—years before he was Secretary of State and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize—, Henry Kissinger wrote A World Restored, to understand and explain one of history’s most important and dramatic periods; a time when Europe went from political chaos to a balanced peace that lasted for almost a hundred years. After the fall of Napoleon, European diplomats gathered in a festive Vienna with the task of restoring stability following the French Revolution, the Napoleonic Wars, and the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire. The central figures at the Congress of Vienna were the Foreign Secretary of the United Kingdom, Viscount Castlereagh and the Foreign Minister of Austria Klemens Wenzel von Mettern Metternich. Castlereagh was primarily concerned with maintaining balanced powers, while Metternich based his diplomacy on the idea of legitimacy—that is, establishing and working with governments that citizens accept without force. The peace they brokered lasted until the outbreak of World War I. Through trenchant analysis of the history and forces that create stability, A World Restored gives insight into how to create long-lasting geopolitical peace-lessons that Kissinger saw as applicable to the period immediately following World War II, when he was writing this book. But the lessons don’t stop there. Like all good insights, the book’s wisdom transcends any single political period. Kissinger’s understanding of coalitions and balance of power can be applied to personal and professional situations, such as dealing with a tyrannical boss or co-worker or formulating business or organizational tactics. Regardless of his ideology, Henry Kissinger has had an important impact on modern politics and few would dispute his brilliance as a strategist. For anyone interested in Western history, the tactics of diplomacy, or political strategy, this volume will provide deep understanding of a pivotal time. |
| kissinger shuttle diplomacy: Conspiracy Theories in the United States and the Middle East Michael Butter, Maurus Reinkowski, 2014-02-27 Conspiracy Theories in the United States and the Middle East is the first book to approach conspiracy theorizing from a decidedly comparative and interdisciplinary perspective. Whereas previous studies have engaged with conspiracy theories within national frameworks only, this collection of essays draws attention to the fact that conspiracist visions are transnational narratives that travel between and connect different cultures. It focuses on the United States and the Middle East because these two regions of the world are entangled in manifold ways and conspiracy theories are currently extremely prominent in both. The contributors to the volume are scholars of Middle Eastern Studies, Anthropology, History, Political Science, Cultural Studies, and American Studies, who approach the subject from a variety of different theories and methodologies. However, all of them share the fundamental assumption that conspiracy theories must not be dismissed out of hand or ridiculed. Usually wrong and frequently dangerous, they are nevertheless articulations of and distorted responses to needs and anxieties that must be taken seriously. Focusing on individual case studies and displaying a high sensitivity for local conditions and the cultural environment, the essays offer a nuanced image of the workings of conspiracy theories in the United States and the Middle East. |
| kissinger shuttle diplomacy: ASEAN Miracle Kishore Mahbubani, 2017-03-08 The Association of Southeast Asian Nations is a miracle. Why?In an era of growing cultural pessimism, many thoughtful individuals believe that different civilisations-especially Islam and the West-cannot live together in peace. The ten countries of ASEAN provide a thriving counter-example of civilizational co-existence. Here 625m people live together in peace. This miracle was delivered by ASEAN.In an era of growing economic pessimism, where many young people believe that their lives will get worse in coming decades, Southeast Asia bubbles with optimism. In an era where many thinkers predict rising geopolitical competition and tension, ASEAN regularly brings together all the world's great powers.Stories of peace are told less frequently than stories of conflict and war. ASEAN's imperfections make better headlines than its achievements. But in the hands of thinker and writer Kishore Mahbubani, the good news story is also a provocation and a challenge to the rest of the world.This excellent book explains, in clear and simple terms, how and why ASEAN has become one of the most successful regional organizations in the world. - George YeoA powerful and passionate account of how, against all odds, ASEAN transformed the region and why Asia and the world need it even more today. - Amitav Acharya |
