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Penguin Press
September 2014
On Sale: September 9, 2014
432 pages
ISBN: 1594206147
EAN: 9781594206146
Kindle: B00INIXVMK
Hardcover / e-Book
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Non-Fiction Political | Non-Fiction History
A deep meditation on the roots of international harmony and
global disorder Henry Kissinger has traveled the world, advised presidents,
and been a close observer and participant in the central
foreign policy events of our era. Now he offers his analysis
of the twenty first century’s ultimate challenge: how to
build a shared international order in a world of divergent
historic perspectives, violent conflict, proliferating
technology, and ideological extremism. There has never been a true “world order,” Kissinger
observes. For most of history, civilizations defined their
own concepts of order. Each considered itself the center of
the world, and envisioned its distinct principles as
universally relevant. China conceived of a global cultural
hierarchy with the Emperor at its pinnacle. In Europe, Rome
imagined itself surrounded by barbarians; when Rome
fragmented, European peoples refined a concept of an
equilibrium of sovereign states and sought to export it
across the world. Islam considered itself the world’s sole
legitimate political unit, destined to expand indefinitely
until the world was brought into harmony by Muslim
principles. The United States was born of a conviction about
the universal applicability of democratic principles—a
conviction that has guided its policies ever since. Now international affairs take place on a global basis, and
these historic concepts of world order are meeting. Every
region participates in questions of high policy in every
other, often instantaneously. Yet there is no consensus
among the major actors about the rules and limits guiding
this process, or its ultimate destination. The result is
mounting tension. Grounded in Kissinger’s deep study of history and experience
as national security advisor and secretary of state, World
Order guides readers on a tour of the globe. It examines the
events and ideas that formed the historic concepts of order,
their manifestations in contemporary controversies, and the
ways in which they might ultimately be reconciled. Provocative and articulate, blending historical insight with
prognostication, World Order is a unique work that could
only come from a lifelong diplomat.
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