Does America Need A Foreign Policy - Tapa dura

In this timely, thoughtful, and important book, at once far-seeing and brilliantly readable, 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 world of globalization, and challenges Americans to understand that our foreign policy must be built upon America's permanent national interests, defining what these are, or should be, in the year 2001 and for the foreseeable future. Here Dr. Kissinger shares with readers his insights into the foreign policy problems and opportunities that confront the United States today, including the challenge to conventional diplomacy posed by globalization, rapid capital movement, and instant communication; 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 other countries against presumed imperial ambitions. In seven accessible chapters, "Does America Need a Foreign Policy?" provides a crystalline assessment of how the United States' ascendancy as the world's dominant presence in the twentieth century may be effectively reconciled with the urgent need in the twenty-first century to achieve a bold new world order and lays out a compelling and comprehensively drawn vision for American policy in approaching decades.

Henry A. Kissinger was sworn in on September 22, 1973, as the fifty-sixth United States Secretary of State, a position he held until January 20, 1977. He also served as Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs from January 20, 1969, until November 3, 1975. Among the awards Dr. Kissinger has received have been the Nobel Peace Prize in 1973, the Presidential Medal of Freedom (the nation's highest civilian award) in 1977, and the Medal of Liberty in 1986.

Dr. Kissinger was born in Fuerth, Germany, came to the United States in 1938, and became a naturalized United States citizen in 1943. He served in the U.S. Army from 1943 to 1946. He graduated summa cum laude from Harvard College in 1950 and received M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Harvard University in 1952 and 1954. From 1954 until 1969 he was a member of the faculty of Harvard University, in both the Department of Government and the Center for International Affairs. He was Director of the Harvard International Seminar from 1952 to 1969.

At present, Dr. Kissinger is chairman of Kissinger Associates, Inc., an international consulting firm.