Henry Kissinger

The former Secretary of State and national security adviser provides a deep meditation on the roots of international harmony and global disorder.

World Order

Danté

Excellent synopsis of the attitudes of the world's major nations towards world order and the concept of geopolitical "balance of power". 

Some elements were lacking, such as a failure to properly address the equalizing effect of technology for emerging nations. Africa and Australia were barely mentioned, which might be a reflection of the author's dismissal of their role on the world stage. The relationship between the individual and the state was also somewhat shallow, in comparison with a book such as The Sovereign Individual. 

Having said that, I certainly learned a few things about history and the stance of India and China on territorial power.

Dana Kraft

This felt like the textbook from a course on modern world history in that is was long and only interesting at a high level. The concept that there are different concepts of what the term 'world order' actually means is interesting to me and I learned how that term might mean something different to someone from the Middle East or East Asia than it means to me. I'm not sure how to really apply that, but knowing it is interesting. 

I made one critical mistake in reading this, though. I have a bad habit when I read a book written by a well known person of reading it in my head in the specific voice of the author. That worked well with Ralph Stanley's autobiography, but Henry Kissinger's voice in my head talking about geopolitical history for 300+ pages was like taking an Ambien. Do not try that at home!

Favorite quotes:
"If order cannot be achieved by concensus or imposed by force, it will be wrought, at disastrous and dehumanizing cost, from the experience of cost." This is pretty obvious, but well said.

Quoting Bismarck from the 1800s - "We live in a wondrous time, in which the strong is weak because of his scruples, and the weak grows strong because of his audacity."

Quoting Nixon - "You pay the same price for doing something halfway as for doing it completely. So you might as well do it completely."

His discussion of the internet describes the volume and availability of information as possibly making leaders use an approach where "...manipulation of information replaces reflection as the principal policy tool."

World Order

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