Book Review, World Order: Reflections on the character of nations and the course of history

By Henry Kissinger

World Order is a lengthy tome on the subject of our prevailing global structure and state of affairs, written by a veteran statesman who has definitely “been there, done that”.

Henry Kissinger, winner of the 1973 Nobel peace prize and a prolific writer deep into his autumnal years, remains a controversial figure. Several human rights organizations have long accused him of war crimes and his brand of realpolitik is certainly not rosy tinted or angelic, even if he believes that principles need to be a vital component of statesmanship. Whatever one happens to think of the man, it was certainly exciting to get to grips with Kissinger´s latest publication, which mixes a rich dose of history with his own personal reflections. 

Heinz Alfred Kissinger was born to a family of German Jews in Fürth, Bavaria, in 1923. When his family fled Nazi persecution they sought refuge in the United States, where the first stage of the young Heinrich´s acclimatization to his newfound home was to adopt the more Anglo-Saxon Henry. He studied accounting at university before he was drafted into the army during World War II, where he eventually did a stint in military intelligence, and even saw combat during the Battle of the Bulge. After the war he studied political science at Harvard and swiftly rose through the ranks, serving as secretary of state during both the Nixon and Ford administrations. It was during this time that his career was at its zenith, when he engineered the concept of détente with the Soviet Union and initiated diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China, although naturally the specter of the Vietnam War still hovers over the rest of his accomplishments.         

The book starts with an introductionary chapter on the concept of global order, before subsequent chapters delve into the unique characteristics and views of world order prevalent in of Europe, The Middle East, Asia and The United States. One of the cornerstones of the book is the Westphalian concept of the nation state, which originated in Kissinger’s native Germany. After Europe was ravaged by the Thirty Year´s War, its shell shocked participants drew up a peace accord as well as a framework for preventing anything like it from happening in the future. The role of the Papacy was now symbolic, and Europe was structured around the concept of sovereign nation states. To shield them against the horrors of total war, the anxious populace needed a wise sovereign (appointed by God or otherwise) who protected their nation’s borders and exercised a monopoly on the use of force. There was no one Caesar to rule all of Europe, although Bonaparte gave it his best shot, which gave rise to the concept of a balance of power, where all nations sought to use diplomacy and warfare to further their own national interests and made alliances as it suited them at the time. When one nation grew too powerful to be contained Britain intervened on the continent on behalf of the weaker party. This most commonly meant France, as Germany was only unified in 1871, the worst possible thing that could happen from a French viewpoint, the principal goal of their foreign policy for the best part of two hundred years having been to keep the fractured German states and fiefdoms from uniting under one banner. Too powerful yet too weak at the same time, Kissinger argues that a united Germany was always going to be serious threat to the balance of power in Europe. On its own Germany couldn´t defeat the rest of Europe, yet they were way too powerful for their smaller neighbors comfort. Belgium, matter of fact, came into being since no major continental power could be allowed to hold the vital port city of Antwerp. This sounds a lot like drab realpolitik, but at least this geopolitical necessity has given Duuvel beer as well as moule frites. Naturally, the outbreak of World War I represented a massive failure and miscalculation on the part of the European nations to maintain the balance of power and control the destructive forces harnessed by industrialization. Europe never fully recovered from two devastating world wars, and has since chosen the path of mutual cooperation, in the form of the EU, to settle their differences.

Asia, as Kissinger wryly notes, is a vast landmass that the majority of humanity calls home, yet its inhabitants have never seen themselves as being part of the same continent or felt any natural solidarity with each other. In Asia we find large and influential countries such as Russia, China, and Japan, which are incredibly diverse and different from each other. Russia has long played a role on the continent of Europe, intervening decisively to check the ambitions of monarchs and dictators whose hubris got the best of them, and is a unique mix of east and west. China deserves a book all on its own (as does more or less every country covered I the book to be fair), and if you are interested I suggest you read Kissinger´s On China.

The Middle East, as Kissinger reasonably notes, is a region undergoing turmoil, without any Asian style tiger economies to provide a stable foundation for peaceful growth. This region displays the problem of the concept of world order when some actors do not find the nation state the most legitimate vessel for achieving this goal, and instead turn to religion as the sole source of legitimacy. If the right of sovereign nation state is not accepted, this can cause volatility and friction. Some of the current woes besetting the region are due to imperialism, when the British and the French divided the Middle East into areas of influence with the 1916 Sykes-Picot agreement. The borders between Iraq and Syria, for instance, wasn´t a natural creation, but rather the product of smoking room diplomacy. Drawing national borders on a map without showing any regards for the different cultures and ethnicities in the region could only spell trouble down the road.

After gazing down upon the world from on high, like an all knowing observer atop a floating palanquin, Kissinger at last arrives at the subject that I am fairly confident he is most concerned with, namely The United States of America and its concept of world order. Unlike all the other countries and regions of the world, America, and to a large extant Europe as well, believes in certain universal principles that transcend the concept of the Westphalian state. America (this is all Kissinger but I trust that he knows what he is talking about) regards itself as a shining city on a hill, and like Ronald Reagan in his farewell address, believes that freedom and democracy are universal human values. The goal of any statesman, Kissinger argues, is to balance geopolitical necessities with morals and principle. Where other countries are solely motivated by their own gain, the “Western” statesman cannot simply make a cold calculation about lines on a map or figures in a ledger. Although to be fair Mr. Kissinger has done his fair share of cold calculation during his long career. This concept would, I believe, be called American exceptionalism, and Kissinger is definitely a believer, even though I suspect China might not be.   

Even though I might not agree with everything Kissinger says, World Order is a thoroughly fascinating read. He concludes the book by offering his thoughts about what challenges a budding statesman might be confronted with in the future. For someone who didn´t use the internet until he was in his seventies, Kissinger is very farsighted and thoughtful about the ramifications of today´s connected information society, and offers a warning about mistaking data and information for insight and wisdom. Young millennial layabouts like me who panic when the internet is down for 15 minutes might be well served by pondering what all the information we are bombarded with 24/7 actually means, and what insights are worth having. Even though we are surrounded by a wealth of information unheard of for almost all of human history, every problem does not have a definite answer or a solution that you can look up online. Information needs to be tempered with history and experience to yield actual, useful knowledge. For that insight alone, World Order is worth your time.