Leadership

*The *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. -The Wall Street Journal

A must read...His books - including this one - will hopefully be read well into the future. Indeed our present and future leaders would benefit from reading all of Kissinger's books. They are timeless." -The New York Journal of Books

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 - Konrad Adenauer, Charles de Gaulle, Richard Nixon, Anwar Sadat, Lee Kuan Yew, and Margaret Thatcher - through the distinctive strategies of statecraft that he believes they embodied. 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.

Auteur

Henry Kissinger served in the US Army during the Second World War and subsequently held teaching posts in history and government at Harvard University for twenty years. He served as national security advisor and secretary of state under Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, and has advised many other American presidents on foreign policy. He received the 1973 Nobel Peace Prize, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the Medal of Liberty, among other awards. He was the author of numerous books and articles on foreign policy and diplomacy, including most recently Leadership, On China, and World Order. He served as chairman of Kissinger Associates, Inc., an international consulting firm. He died in 2023.

Texte du rabat

Henry Kissinger, monumental diplomat and statesman, examines the strategies of five great twentieth century figures and brings to a life of unifying theory of leadership and diplomacy

In Leadership, Henry Kissinger presents a deeply insightful study of five impactful leaders in modern history: Charles de Gaulle, Konrad Adenauer, Margaret Thatcher, Richard Nixon, and Lee Kuan Yew. Grounded not only in his deep study of history, but distinguished career in government, Kissinger - who himself transformed American diplomacy as we know it - pulls back the curtain to expose the true politics and masterful strategies of these great geopolitical minds. What results is a brilliant and complex portrait of leadership, refracted through the lives of very different subjects.

Looking far beyond their most well-known victories and defeats, Kissinger contextualizes their strategies over the scope of their lives - from their rise to power to controversies and detractors, to contemporary challenges and greater reckonings over their global positions. From Kissinger's unique vantage point, and through his personal relationships with his subjects,we see not only the impact of these far-sighted statesmen during their period in power, but the aftermath.

Throughout, Kissinger offers invaluable lessons on leadership in times of war and peace, and reveals the inner workings of modern diplomatic tug-of-war. Essential reading for all hoping to understand and engage with our current and future global challenges, Leadership is a stunning meditation on leadership itself, from one of our most legendary statesmen.

Résumé
*The *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.” -The Wall Street Journal

“*A must read...His books - including this one - will hopefully be read well into the future. Indeed our present and future leaders would benefit from reading all of Kissinger's books. They are timeless." -*The New York Journal of Books

“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 - Konrad Adenauer, Charles de Gaulle, Richard Nixon, Anwar Sadat, Lee Kuan Yew, and Margaret Thatcher - through the distinctive strategies of statecraft that he believes they embodied. 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.

Échantillon de lecture
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Konrad Adenauer:
The Strategy of Humility

The Necessity of Renewal

In January 1943, at the Casablanca Conference, the Allies proclaimed that they would accept nothing less than the 'unconditional surrender' of the Axis powers. US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who was the driving force behind the announcement, sought to deprive any successor government to Hitler of the ability to claim that it had been deluded into surrender by unfulfilled promises. Germany's complete military defeat, together with its total loss of moral and international legitimacy, led inexorably to the progressive disintegration of the German civil structure.

I observed this process as part of the 84th Infantry Division of the US army as it moved from the German border near the industrial Ruhr territory to the Elbe River near Magdeburg - just 100 miles away from the then-raging Battle of Berlin. As the division was crossing the German border, I was transferred to a unit responsible for security and prevention of the guerrilla activity that Hitler had ordered.

For a person like me, whose family had fled the small Bavarian city of FŸrth six years earlier to escape racial persecution, no greater contrast with the Germany of my youth could have been imagined. Then, Hitler had just annexed Austria and was in the process of dismembering Czechoslovakia. The dominant attitude of the German people verged on the overbearing.

Now, white sheets hung from many windows to signify the surrender of the population. The Germans, who a few years earlier had celebrated the prospect of dominating Europe from the English Channel to the Volga River, were cowed and bewildered. Thousands of displaced persons - deported from Eastern Europe as forced labor during the war - crowded the streets in quest of food and shelter and the possibility of returning home.

It was a desperate period in German history. Food shortages were severe. Many starved, and infant mortality was twice that of the rest of Western Europe. The established exchange of goods and services collapsed; black markets took its place. Mail service ranged from …