Musings of a Madman

Author: Henry Kissinger
Date: 20-May-04

In this timely, thoughtful, and important audiobook, America’s most famous diplomatist explains why we urgently need a new and coherent foreign policy and what our foreign policy goals should be in the post-Cold War era.
Dr. Kissinger focuses his attention on such hot spots as Vladimir Putin’s Russia, the new China, the globalized economy, and the demand for humanitarian intervention, and he challenges Americans to understand that our foreign policy must be built upon America’s permanent national interests.

Kissinger shares his deep insights into the foreign policy problems and opportunities that confront the United States today, including: the challenge to conventional diplomacy posed by globalization; the challenge of modernizing China; the impact of Russia’s precipitous decline from superpower status; the growing estrangement between the United States and Europe; the questions that arise from making “humanitarian intervention” a part of the “new diplomacy”; and the prospect that America’s transformation into the one remaining superpower and global leader may unite countries against presumed imperial ambitions.

Does America Need a Foreign Policy? provides a crystalline assessment of how the United States’ ascendancy as the world’s dominant presence in the 20th century may be effectively reconciled with the urgent need in the 21st century to achieve a bold new world order. Dr. Kissinger lays out a compelling and comprehensively drawn vision for American policy in the approaching decades.

My Thoughts: Really staggered through this book. Substance wise, I really wasn’t feeling it too much. Maybe a second read might help; but given the timeliness of the topic, I am not sure. Sort of recommended.

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