Realism in the Atomic Age: A Study of Kissinger's Foreign Policy Thought

Author: Ju Yongming
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-08-01
Features: Kissinger was an outstanding diplomat and foreign policy thinker of the 20th century. He studied history from the perspective of realpolitik and provided a philosophical understanding of past diplomatic relations, making his foreign policy ideas unique in their ingenuity. His diplomatic philosophy originated from tradition while breaking from it, combining the characteristics of his time—the nuclear age—to both discard old diplomatic thoughts and construct his own system, namely, the realism of foreign policy in the nuclear age. During his 8 years in the White House, he applied his extraordinary wisdom and strategy to practice his foreign policy ideas, creating numerous miracles in the history of American diplomacy. His diplomatic achievements made significant contributions to world peace, earning him the Nobel Peace Prize in 1974.
Kissinger's foreign policy theories and practices quickly attracted the attention of scholars, so from the 1970s onward, people began writing and speaking about him. However, based on the research on Kissinger that the author has read, there is still a lack of comprehensive and systematic studies on his foreign policy ideas. Existing domestic research has primarily focused on "power" and "balance of power," which is far from sufficient for understanding the entire system of Kissinger's foreign policy. The purpose of this paper is to systematically organize Kissinger's foreign policy ideas by deeply studying his representative works and building upon the achievements of previous research.
From reading Kissinger's works, it is evident that the theoretical foundation of his foreign policy ideas is realism, a synthesis of the realpolitik of major Western and European powers in the modern and contemporary periods. Therefore, studying Kissinger's foreign policy ideas is, to some extent, an analysis of the foreign policy of Western and European powers in the modern and contemporary periods, which helps to understand the motivations and roots of their current diplomatic behaviors, especially in the United States. This can provide valuable insights for China's practical diplomatic practices in the process of globalization in the nuclear age.