Chicken Soup for the International Relations Soul
In the Chapter on Globalization, Kissinger speculates that the reason Globalization has taken hold is two fold. First it is driven by America and as the world’s biggest power it is no surprise that others want to play this game. Second, and more importantly, is the fact there is no realistic alternative to Globalization.
That said, Kissinger does sympathize with those that Globalization is leaving behind. Keep in mind we are talking about Kissinger here so that is a pretty big leap. “The globalized market opens prospects of heretofore unimagined wealth. But it also creates new vulnerabilities to political turmoil and the danger of a new gap, not so much between rich and poor as between those in society that are part of the globalized, Internet world and those who are not, “ writes Kissinger.
Of course Kissinger does not disappoint us on his views about the globalization protestors. “While much of the self-righteousness, nihilism, and violence associated with the demonstrations against globalization that are now spreading around the world is abhorrent, these outbreaks represent a warning that the international economic-system may come to face a crisis of legitimacy.”
But he is right and the system, the market, has always been good at buying the support of most people anyway. For Kissinger job number one of the new American foreign policy has to address the problems in the world in order to maintain the dominance of the US in world affairs-in other words the US has to remain important and relevant. To do this in the globalization era may involve some trickery and handholding.
In essence what Kissinger is saying, and probably always has been advising his presidents, is that the US must sometimes act like good guy, and then sometimes be able to act like the bad guy too. It is a nod to the realism of Machiavelli’s “The Prince”.
If you want, and has other reviewers have suggested, this book is a road map for the future of US foreign policy. Some readers will get the same message from this as they did from Machiavelli-that it is an excuse to abuse power. But that is simply not true.
In the end, this book is about helping American statesmen come to grips with the fact that, “American preeminence is a fact of life for the near- and almost certainly mid-term future. The way the United States handles it will determine what kind
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