WORLD ORDER, New York: Penguin Press, 2014.

420pp
Henry Kissinger
By Herbert K. Tillema.
The occasion for Henry Kissingers latest book, WORLD ORDER, is said to be crisis in
the concept of world order [is] the ultimate international problem of our day.
Underlying this assertion is Kissingers long-enduring conviction, often expressed in
public writings starting in the 1950s, that conceptions of legitimate world order combine
with structures of international power to shape patterns of international politics, including
constraint of war. Each of these pillars of peace is subject to change with time, but
neither is easily, nor immediately, altered merely by wish or effort of one or a few
parties.
It is useful to remember two things about the author as one reads this book. First,
Kissingers scholarship is not appropriately characterized according to popular political
ideology.

His multi-faceted perspective does not fit political stereotypes such as

Realist, Idealist, nor other such stereotypical categories. Kissinger has always held
that power relationships matter, but values and norms also make a difference. Second,
Kissinger the writer is more than merely a scholar, although he is assuredly a fine
scholar.

He has been a political and policy consultant from the beginning of his

professional career, and for a time was also a statesman-diplomat. This engenders a
multi-faceted vision that may require careful reading to untangle.

In addition, and

beneficially, not content to be an isolated scholar, Kissinger usually writes for the benefit
and interest of a large audience, not merely for attention of a few specialists.

The International Journal of Conflict & Reconciliation

Fall 2014, Volume 2 Number 1

WORLD ORDER broadly portrays the interplay of power politics and various
normative conceptions, regnant at different times and places.

World order, in

Kissingers lexicon, represents a conception of legitimate constraints upon action and just
arrangements of power. It does not necessarily represent an actual state of affairs. There
is not now, and never has been, a conception of world order that enjoys a truly global
vision and acceptance. However, there have been regional or national conceptions,
including within Europe (developing after the 17th Century Peace of Westphalia), the
United States, the Islamic Arab world, Iran (Persia), India, China, Japan, and elsewhere.
No two of those conceptions are identical to one another. Due in part to international
power relations, the European Westphalian idea of world order over-shadowed other
conceptions in the Nineteenth and early Twentieth Century in many parts of the world.
For a time after World War II, following the decline of Europe and due in great part to
the United States control of extraordinary power resources, a variant of the Westphalia
system infused with claims of American exceptionalism prevailed. Today, other states
and regions are more powerful than before, and at the same time each more resistant to
American, European, or other foreign assertions regarding what constitutes just world
order. Therein lies danger if effective normative consensus does not re-emerge and
preservation of peace relies solely upon the weak foundation of what passes for an
international balance of power today.
Kissingers latest book is worth wide attention. It is recommended to all serious
students of international affairs, and many other conscientious citizens.

The International Journal of Conflict & Reconciliation

Fall 2014, Volume 2 Number 1

Herbert K. Tillema, Professor Emeritus, University of Missouri-Columbia

The International Journal of Conflict & Reconciliation

Fall 2014, Volume 2 Number 1