Kissinger’s descriptions of prominent acquaintances or colleagues, they tend toward the anodyne or ingratiating. Nixon made that prolonged and expanded the war, as well as their devastating consequences.Īs for Mr. Once again, he sidesteps questions about decisions that he and Mr. Kissinger’s disingenuousness on that subject. Still, there are troubling passages: the handful of pages dealing with Vietnam, for instance, will remind many readers of Mr. Kissinger’s earlier ones - including “Diplomacy” (1994), which this volume draws upon heavily at times - with spinning or with rationalizing his own policy-making record as national security adviser and secretary of state under President Richard M. 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. Kissinger, now 91, strides briskly from century to century, continent to continent, examining the alliances and divisions that have defined Europe over the centuries, the fallout from the disintegration of nation-states like Syria and Iraq, and China’s developing relationship with the rest of Asia and the West. However the reader may regard the author’s own historical baggage, the book puts the problems of today’s world and America’s role in that increasingly interconnected and increasingly riven world into useful - and often illuminating - context. Given the multiplying foreign policy emergencies in the headlines, from the advance of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) to the face-off between Russia and Ukraine, the subject of Henry Kissinger’s new book, “World Order,” could not be more timely.

Henry kissinger world order book