: Reflections on the Character of Nations and the Course of History Kissinger, Henry creator Henry Kissinger. text London : Penguin , 2014 monographic eng

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420 p. : 6.34 x 1.5 x 9.37 inches. There has never been a true “world order,” Kissinger observes. For most of history, civilizations defined their own concepts of order. Each considered itself the center of the world and envisioned its distinct principles as universally relevant. China conceived of a global cultural hierarchy with the emperor at its pinnacle. In Europe, Rome imagined itself surrounded by barbarians; when Rome fragmented, European peoples refined a concept of an equilibrium of sovereign states and sought to export it across the world. Islam, in its early centuries, considered itself the world’s sole legitimate political unit, destined to expand indefinitely until the world was brought into harmony by religious principles. The United States was born of a conviction about the universal applicability of democracy—a conviction that has guided its policies ever since. / Henry Kissinger Intergovernmental Organizations Policy International Diplomacy Democracy 327.172 KIS 9780241004265 260701 20260722150039.0