An instant New York Times bestseller
Henry Kissinger, consummate diplomat and statesman, examines the
strategies of six great twentieth-century figures and brings to life a
unifying theory of leadership and diplomacy
**"An extraordinary book, one that braids together two through lines in
the long and distinguished career of former Secretary of State Henry
Kissinger...In Leadership he presents a fascinating set of historical
case studies and political biographies that blend the dance and the
dancer, seamlessly." - James Stavridis, *The Wall Street Journal
*
**"Leaders," writes Henry Kissinger in this compelling book, "think and
act at the intersection of two axes: the first, between the past and the
future; the second, between the abiding values and aspirations of those
they lead. They must balance what they know, which is necessarily drawn
from the past, with what they intuit about the future, which is
inherently conjectural and uncertain. It is this intuitive grasp of
direction that enables leaders to set objectives and lay down a
strategy."
In Leadership, Kissinger analyses the lives of six extraordinary
leaders through the distinctive strategies of statecraft, which he
believes they embodied. After the Second World War, Konrad Adenauer
brought defeated and morally bankrupt Germany back into the community of
nations by what Kissinger calls "the strategy of humility." Charles de
Gaulle set France beside the victorious Allies and renewed its historic
grandeur by "the strategy of will." During the Cold War, Richard Nixon
gave geostrategic advantage to the United States by "the strategy of
equilibrium." After twenty-five years of conflict, Anwar Sadat brought a
vision of peace to the Middle East by a "strategy of transcendence."
Against the odds, Lee Kuan Yew created a powerhouse city-state,
Singapore, by "the strategy of excellence." And, though Britain was
known as "the sick man of Europe" when Margaret Thatcher came to power,
she renewed her country's morale and international position by "the
strategy of conviction."
To each of these studies, Kissinger brings historical perception, public
experience and--because he knew each of the subjects and participated in
many of the events he describes--personal knowledge. Leadership is
enriched by insights and judgements that only Kissinger could make and
concludes with his reflections on world order and the indispensability
of leadership today.
