Power in Action

Remember one of America’s most legendary diplomats, Henry Kissinger, now 99 is still writing books,  find the soul in statecraft, profiles, and analyses six extraordinary leaders he has known, – Lee Kuan Yew, Adenauer, Nixon, de Gaulle, Thatcher, and Sadat to draw general lessons about character and intelligence of leaders who are architects to change the world and shaped their countries. Kissinger who knew them all and enlivens his text with accounts of his own interactions with the leaders and those around them and infuses his lucid policy and portraits of politicians spinning weakness and defeat into renewed strength. In his vital study of power in action.

 Henry Kissinger writes in this compelling book, “ think and act at the intersection of two axes, the first, between the past and the future; the second between the abiding values and aspirations of those they lead.  They must balance what they know, which is necessarily drawn from the past, with what they intuit about the future, which is inherently conjectural and uncertain, and this intuitive grasp of direction enables leaders to set objectives and lay down strategy.

In Leadership, Kissinger reveals the distinctive strategies of statecraft that he believes they embodied. After the Second World War, Konrad Adenauer brought defeated and morally bankrupt Germany back into the community of nations by what Kissinger calls “the Strategy of humility”. Charles de Gaulle set France beside the victorious Allies and renewed its historic grandeur by “the strategy of will“. During the Cold War, Richard Nixon gave a geostrategic advantage to the United States by “ the strategy of equilibrium”. After twenty-five years of conflict, Anwar Sadat brought a vision of peace to the Middle East through a “ Strategy of transcendence”. Against odds, Lee Kwan Yew created a powerhouse city-state, Singapore, by “the strategy of excellence”.  Margaret Thatcher renewed her country’s morale and international position by “the strategy of conviction”, although when she came to power Britain was known as “the sick man of Europe”.

Kissinger also brings historical perception and public experience, and because he knew each of their subjects, and participated in many of the events he describes – personal knowledge.

The book is filled with insights and judgments such as only he could make, and concludes with his reflections on the world order and the indispensability of leadership today. All of them were formed in a period when established institutions collapsed all over Europe, colonial structures gave way to independent states in Asia and Africa, and a new international order had to be created from the vestiges of the old.

Leadership: Six Studies in World Strategy by Henry Kissinger, Allen Lane £25/Penguin $36.