Henry Kissinger - Does America Need a Foreign Policy?: Toward a New Diplomacy for the 21st Century

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CONTENTS

To my children, Elizabeth and David, and to my daughter-in-law, Alexandra Rockwell

No one has done more to make this book possible than my wife, Nancy. She has been my emotional and intellectual support for decades, and her incisive editorial comments were only a small part of her contribution.

I have been fortunate in my friends and associates, some going back to years together in government service, who permitted me to impose on them for advice, editing, research, and general comments. I will never be able to thank them enough for what they have meant to me over the years and in preparing this volume.

Peter Rodman, my tutee at Harvard, friend, and counselor of a lifetime, read, reviewed, and helped edit the entire manuscript, and I am grateful for his perceptions and critique.

The same is true of Jerry Bremer, another long-time associate, whose pithy advice and editorial comments sharpened my thinking.

William Rogers continued educating me on the chapter dealing with Latin America and regarding the legal aspects of the concept of universal jurisdiction.

Steve Graubard, professor at Brown University and former editor of Daedalus , and I were graduate students together and have been friends ever since. He read and commented on the manuscript, greatly improving it by suggesting new avenues for exploration.

The following prepared helpful and indispensable research: Alan Stoga, on Latin America and globalization; Jon Vanden Heuvel, on Europe and the American philosophical debate on foreign policy; John Bolton, on the International Criminal Court; Chris Lennon, on human rights issues; Peter Mandaville, as a fact-checker, researcher, and editorial advisor on portions of several chapters; and Rosemary Niehuss, who was invaluable in collecting and annotating background materials.

John Lipsky and Felix Rohatyn commented with characteristic perspicacity on the chapter on globalization.

Gina Goldhammer went over the entire manuscript several times with a fine editorial eye and unfailing good humor.

No one has ever had a more dedicated staff than the group I have been fortunate enough to assemble. Faced with tight deadlines made even tighter when my writing was interrupted by illness, they worked indefatigably, often late into the night.

Jody Iobst Williams expertly deciphered my handwriting, typing the manuscript through several drafts, and in the process made innumerable extremely valuable editorial suggestions.

Theresa Cimino Amantea supervised the entire process, from ensuring that research and comments arrived on time and collating them to seeing to it that every target date of the publishers was met and the manuscript properly prepared. She did all of this with great efficiency matched by extraordinary good cheer.

Jessica Incao and her associates, on whom fell the burden of having to see to the smooth operation of my office while their colleagues were working on the book, performed admirably and with great dedication.

This is the third book I have published with Simon & Schuster, and my gratitude for their support and affection for their staff continues to grow. Michael Korda is both a friend and advisor in addition to being a subtle editor and psychologist practicing without a license. Rebecca Head and Carol Bowie in his office were invariably cheerful and helpful. John Cox assisted subtly and ably with the editing. Fred Chase did his customary careful and thoughtful job of copyediting. Sydney Wolfe Cohen wrote the index with perspicacity and patience.

The irrepressible Gypsy da Silva, assisted by Isolde Sauer, coordinated all the various copyediting aspects of the book at Simon & Schuster with unflagging enthusiasm and endless patience matched by great efficiency.

Karolina Harris, in charge of the interior design, and George Turianski, the production manager, both have my deep gratitude.

I alone am responsible for the shortcomings of this volume.

I have dedicated this book to my children, Elizabeth and David, and to my daughter-in-law, Alexandra Rockwell, who have made me very proud of them and of the close friendship that exists between us.

ONE

A T the dawn of the new millennium, the United States is enjoying a preeminence unrivaled by even the greatest empires of the past. From weaponry to entrepreneurship, from science to technology, from higher education to popular culture, America exercises an unparalleled ascendancy around the globe. During the last decade of the twentieth century, Americas preponderant position rendered it the indispensable component of international stability. It mediated disputes in key trouble spots to the point that, in the Middle East, it had become an integral part of the peace process. So committed was the United States to this role that it almost ritually put itself forward as mediator, occasionally even when it was not invited by all the parties involvedas in the Kashmir dispute between India and Pakistan in July 1999. The United States considered itself both the source and the guarantor of democratic institutions around the globe, increasingly setting itself up as the judge of the fairness of foreign elections and applying economic sanctions or other pressures if its criteria were not met.

As a result, American troops are scattered around the world, from the plains of Northern Europe to the lines of confrontation in East Asia. These way stations of Americas involvement verge, in the name of peacekeeping, on turning into permanent military commitments. In the Balkans, the United States is performing essentially the same functions as did the Austrian and Ottoman empires at the turn of the last century, of keeping the peace by establishing protectorates interposed between warring ethnic groups. It dominates the international financial system by providing the single largest pool of investment capital, the most attractive haven for investors, and the largest market for foreign exports. American popular culture sets standards of taste around the world even as it provides the occasional flash point for national resentments.

The legacy of the 1990s has produced a paradox. On the one hand, the United States is sufficiently powerful to be able to insist on its view and to carry the day often enough to evoke charges of American hegemony. At the same time, American prescriptions for the rest of the world often reflect either domestic pressures or a reiteration of maxims drawn from the experience of the Cold War. The result is that the countrys preeminence is coupled with the serious potential of becoming irrelevant to many of the currents affecting and ultimately transforming the global order. The international scene exhibits a strange mixture of respect forand submission toAmericas power, accompanied by occasional exasperation with its prescriptions and confusion as to its long-term purposes.