Henry Kissinger’s place in history is well established, best known for opening the door to China during the Nixon Administration. Formerly the US and China were isolated with no direct ties. In
today’s world that’s kind of hard to imagine. A lot has changed in 40 years since. This book is a current recounting of world history and a high-level examinations of leaders and ideologies that
drive world events. From wars, to periods of stability. Leader’s egos and their influence on the world. He bases a lot of his thesis on the agreement from a Westphalia accord in the 17th century
at the end of the 30 years war. The principles keep coming back in multiple forms following periods of wars. The belief of secular, tolerance, and respecter of sovereign boarders of nations. It
speaks to Germany’s actions driven by its geography in the center of Europe. Between France and Russia. But always the largest, most powerful single player in Europe a many times divided and
pulled back together. Interesting how often this theme was repeated. England’s balancing force taking different sides and exerting power through the seas and strength from its safety from
them.
The most interesting part gets into his exposition of the birth of Islam and their beliefs driving world events from its origin through today. His explanation sets the stage for Muhammed’s
teaching and their origin in the region during a time of severe war. The belief that all should become Muslim, just as all Christians believe that all should become followers of Jesus
Christ but with one big difference. If you reject Christianity, you aren’t condemned to death in this world.
Half way through the book, he transitions to contemporary history and current events. He describes actions taken from his perspective of Westphalian viewpoint. When actions taken respect national
borders and enforce ‘world-order’ standards and when they don’t. But we’re not living in a western European led world anymore. The rules are different as we experience the influence and positions
of (formerly) colonized nations, the rise and influence of China and Russia. As Europe has grown passive based and weak based on its lessons from 2 world wars.
The most interesting chapter was on Kissinger’s analysis of the cyber world, his clear understanding of how it works , who is driving it and how it speeds decisions and influences national
decisions. His observation is that with information available in such abundance, immediately available and transmitted, we’ve lost much of our ability to process, contemplate and derive wisdom.
In the recent past, letters and telegrams were the most popular means of communicating. long distance telephone calls being planned and special are recent history - common to many of us replaced
in the past 30 years with email, texting and immediate voice communication to all points on the earth. Another dimension of our cyber world is our ability to be targeted through our involvement
of social media. News, ads, email is all targeted to our preferences based on our activity magnifying our bias reenforcing our beliefs limiting our exposure to alternate ideas clearly influencing
our decision making. Information is not just targeted by general demographics but specific to us individually. Kissinger’s grasp of this reality is impressive and something to consider as we
engage in the on-line world.
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