Leadership: Six Studies in World Strategy

Content Warning: This section contains descriptions of war and human rights abuses, along with accounts of racism and cultural insensitivity. 

Henry Kissinger begins by stating that political leadership is especially important for helping a society balance a respect for the past and its visions of the future. Political leaders must understand what their people want while navigating the limits of circumstance, inspiring them while retaining the power to coerce them. When societies are in the midst of a profound transition, Kissinger observes, such leadership is more important than ever, as there are some virtues worth preserving even when it is clearly necessary to adapt to new conditions. Kissinger adds that leaders are forced to make very difficult decisions under severe constraints, both in terms of the choices available and the resources at their disposal. They are acting furthermore at the same time as other people in a comparable position, and so the art of strategy is making such decisions based on an assessment of one’s own capabilities and interests along with the capabilities and interests of others. Leaders can learn much by studying history and seeing how those before them have acted wisely or foolishly, but Kissinger claims that this is insufficient, as the future is unknowable and unpredictable.