Diplomacy | Henry Kissinger

Diplomacy by Henry Kissinger

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Diplomacy is a 1994 book written by former National Security Advisor and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. It is a sweep of the history of international relations and the art of diplomacy, largely concentrating on the 20th century and the Western World. Kissinger, as a great believer in the realist school of international relations, focuses strongly upon the concepts of the balance of power in Europe prior to World War I, raison d’État and Realpolitik throughout the ages of diplomatic relations. Kissinger also provides insightful critiques of the counter realist diplomatic tactics of collective security, developed in the Charter of the League of Nations, and self determination, also a principle of the League. Kissinger also examines the use of the sphere of influence arguments put forth by the Soviet Union in Eastern and Southern Europe after World War II; an argument that has been maintained by contemporary Russian foreign relations with regard to Ukraine, Georgia and other former Soviet satellites in Central Asia.

The history begins in Europe in the 17th century, but quickly advances up to the World Wars and then the Cold War. Kissinger refers to himself numerous times in the book, especially when recounting the Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford presidencies.

Kissinger dedicated the book to the men and women of the United States Foreign Service.
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Chapters

• The New World Order
• The Hinge: Theodore Roosevelt or Woodrow Wilson
• From Universality to Equilibrium: Richelieu, William of Orange, and Pitt
• The Concert of Europe: Great Britain, Austria, and Russia
• Two Revolutionaries: Napoleon III and Bismarck
• Realpolitik Turns on Itself
• A Political Doomsday Machine: European Diplomacy Before the First World War
• Into the Vortex: The Military Doomsday Machine
• The New Face of Diplomacy: Wilson and the Treaty of Versailles
• The Dilemmas of the Victors
• Stresemann and the Re-emergence of the Vanquished
• The End of Illusion: Hitler and the Destruction of Versailles
• Stalin’s Bazaar
• The Nazi-Soviet Pact
• America Re-enters the Arena: Franklin Delano Roosevelt
• Three Approaches to Peace: Roosevelt, Stalin, and Churchill in World War II
• The Beginning of the Cold War
• The Success and the Pain of Containment
• The Dilemma of Containment: The Korean War
• Negotiating with the Communists: Adenauer, Churchill, and Eisenhower
• Leapfrogging Containment: The Suez Crisis
• Hungary: Upheaval in the Empire
• Khrushchev’s Ultimatum: The Berlin Crisis 1958-63
• Concepts of Western Unity: Macmillan, de Gaulle, Eisenhower, and Kennedy
• Vietnam: Entry into the Morass; Truman and Eisenhower
• Vietnam: On the Road to Despair; Kennedy, and Johnson
• Vietnam: The Extrication; Nixon
• Foreign Policy as Geopolitics: Nixon’s Triangular Diplomacy
• Détente and Its Discontents
• The End of the Cold War: Reagan and Gorbachev
• The New World Order Reconsidered