Unlikely Heir: Obama Returns to Kissinger's Realpolitik◎Der Spiegel（2013.05.24）
【Comment】
“In the
Kissinger system, unrest was more dangerous than injustice, and a functioning
balance of power was more important than human rights,” says Gregor Peter
Schmitz in his article “Unlikely
Heir: Obama Returns to Kissinger’s Realpolitik” for Der Spiegel.
Since the latter half of the 20th century, dealing with China properly has always been a top priority for the US presidents, who have no precedent to follow. Henry Kissinger seemed to have fiddled with the issue quite successfully in 1970s; however, is it feasible for the 21st century American president to copy his experience?
The first thing Obama did in his second term was to replace Secretary Clinton with John Kerry, who doesn’t seem to know much about his job. Obama also invites new Chinese leader Xi to visit California in private, a rare move in the history of Sino-US relations. Unsurprisingly, German observers are degrading Obama’s new diplomatic dance.
Obama faces no lenient domestic situations either. Facing arduous problems, he has been reported by the media to possibly follow Nixon, implying that Obama might step down during the term.
From the perspective of Buddhism, the Dharma is readily flexible, thus allowing almost limitless free adaptation. Still, basic morality and compassion are required for humans’ magnificent quests. Achievements don’t deserve the name, if done without benevolent intention. Regrettably, humans tend to get into the trap of temporal glamour. rewritten at 2050
文章形容季辛吉比梅特涅更像梅特涅，而且視「不穩」比「不義」更危險，重「平衡」甚於「人權」。這與美國的形象和理想相反。
歐巴馬目前遇到的國內難題，被媒體形容為可能成為尼克森第二。
如何面對中國，當然是歷屆作為超強總統的一大挑戰，且前無古人。但是，季辛吉是可以拷貝的成功例子嗎？
歐巴馬換掉希拉蕊，私邀習近平，已經釋放了和解的訊息。更嚴重的是，德國人也懷疑其舞步。
雖然從佛教教義而言，法無定性故得自由自在，但無論如何，法基本上仍必須走在理想的道路上──沒有道德不能慈悲，只是玩世不是法（季辛吉刻意模仿的德國口音，就是玩）。但世界上卻有許多人深陷其中而自得其樂。
這就是文章所形容的季辛吉：「realism without moral scruples」。
Unlikely Heir: Obama Returns to Kissinger's Realpolitik◎Der Spiegel（2013.05.24）
Henry Kissinger, the hawkish national security advisor to Nixon who popularized realpolitik, turns 90 this week. Few would have expected President Obama to pick up his mantle, but the erstwhile idealist resembles Kissinger more every day.
When Henry Kissinger was at the height of his power, the US media dubbed then President Richard Nixon 's national security advisor "the true president." At the time, he was traveling around the world at such a breakneck pace that journalists speculated that there must be five Kissingers (four doubles and one real). Around that time, a reporter asked him a question: Why are Americans so fascinated by a young man from Fürth in the German region of Franconia, who fled the Nazis at the age of 15?
Kissinger replied: "I've always acted alone. Americans like that immensely. Americans like the cowboy who leads the wagon train by riding ahead alone on his horse."
At Harvard University, the German émigré wrote his senior thesis about Austrian statesman Count Clemens von Metternich . Some 388 pages long, it prompted the university to introduce a page limit. His theory was that while Metternich might have temporarily destroyed the beginnings of liberalism in 19th-century Europe with the help of his secret diplomacy, he also preserved the balance of powers.
Kissinger, who celebrates his 90th birthday on May 27, has more in common with Metternich than he would like to admit, after having made his mark in history with a number of cool diplomatic strokes. He balanced the fragile equilibrium of horror among the nuclear powers in the Cold War. And, to his credit, Kissinger 's secret negotiations with the North Vietnamese communists secured the relatively orderly withdrawal of American troops from Vietnam.
Kissinger secured Mao 's China as a strategic partner and practiced Bismarckian realpolitik in Latin America. In the Kissinger system, unrest was more dangerous than injustice, and a functioning balance of power was more important than human rights.
His policies, however, often collided with America's self-image. The country likes to think it can save the world, if not actually reinvent it. But it also wants to be loved, a wish Kissinger neither could nor wanted to fulfill.
Realism without Moral Scruples
Before Washington 's withdrawal from Vietnam, Kissinger , together with President Nixon , had Cambodia bombed practically back into the Stone Age. He also resisted an early end to the war for a long time, and wrote to Nixon : "Withdrawal of US troops will become like salted peanuts to the American public: The more US troops come home, the more will be demanded."
Kissinger supported Chilean General Augusto Pinochet , which helped bring about an economic recovery, but Pinochet also proved to be a brutal dictator. Kissinger 's diplomacy opened up China, but it also made Beijing's nomenclatura policies socially acceptable. He still openly admires what he sees as China's wisdom today.
For such realism without moral scruples, he was chided even in the United States as a manipulative monster with a German accent, and even as a war criminal who "lies like other people breathe," as investigative journalist Seymour Hersh wrote.
After Nixon , American presidents, instead of citing the national interest, preferred once again to invoke America's God-given mission, most notably former President George W. Bush and his neo-conservatives. They even wanted to free the world from the "axis of evil." But the neo-cons are history, while Kissinger 's realism, stemming from the 19th century, still remains valid, as President Barack Obama , the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, demonstrates today.
During the election campaign, Democratic candidate Obama portrayed himself as an idealistic "citizen of the world." But he was hardly in office before he began pursuing the maxim that idealists give nice speeches, while realists shape policy.
In this fashion, the president turned himself into a lone judge who personally approves which Islamist is to be killed with a drone attack somewhere in the world. He launched a new era of conflict with massive investments in "cyber war." And Obama prosecutes betrayers of state secrets even more relentlessly than any of his predecessors.
The president has coldly recognized that war-weary Americans prefer progress at home instead of elsewhere in the world. This is one reason he has threatened Syrian dictator Bashar Assad while following up with little in the way of action. Not unlike Kissinger 's approach in Chile, Obama looks the other way when America's allies, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, subjugate their people, or when China harasses dissidents. US author Jacob Heilbrunn calls this approach "neo-Kissingerism," and notes: "Obama may even start speaking about foreign affairs with a German accent."
Kissinger is a realist with a weakness: He is vain, and he was never indifferent to how other people felt about him. It must make him jealous to see that Obama is so popular in many parts of the world, despite his cold-blooded actions. But as he turns 90, Kissinger probably relishes the notion that the president resembles him more and more every day.
