Henry Kissinger: Intervention With a Vision

This blog is in a series of posts from my readings of THE RIGHT WAR? THE CONSERVATIVE DEBATE ON IRAQ. Please contribute your comments. The following is a discussion of Chapter 4, a republished article by Henry Kissinger, April 11, 2004, THE WASHINGTON POST.


After hearing from neo-conservatives and a traditionalist, we now turn to a man who defines the words real politik: Henry Kissinger. In this April 2004 article in The Washington Post, "Intervention With a Vision," Kissinger offers us a realist perspective.

Kissinger points out the two competing visions in American foreign policy: a value-based foreign policy vs. interest-based foreign policy. He argues that the current doctrine of global democratic interventionism faces the obstacle of that its ideology (the idea that democracy should be pursued because democracies do not harm each other) has not been really tested. But he also argues that a policy based on “interest” alone requires perfect flexibility and an instant readiness to adjust to changed circumstance.

According to Kissinger, what marks the 21st century as unprecedented is the fact that as state power weakens, non-state terrorist groups fill the vacuum for the purpose of threatening the state system itself.

America, the leading power in the world, is engaged in a wide range of activities in the name of democracy and human rights (publishing reports, applying sanctions, bringing about regime change, etc.) No other country has treated human rights and the support of democracy as so central or has permitted so direct a role to so many elements of its public opinion in the implementation of a specific aspect of its foreign policy.

But because democracy must be rooted in domestic factors, it will thrive only where it reflects cultural, historical, and institutional backgrounds. Kissinger argues that America needs urgently to develop a concept of political evolution that combines the authority required for economic progress with the human rights required for a democratic evolution.

"Iraq is turning into the test case," he says. "Regime change was impelled by strategic imperatives together with moral convictions. But, the conditions we had in Germany and Japan are nearly reversed. In Iraq, the ethnic and religious divisions are so deep, that in its early stages, democracy threatens to become a form of communalism." Sound familiar? He's on to the same historical points that James Kurth dived deep into, and perhaps the same eery predictions.

But he diverges from Kurth there. To solve the crisis in Iraq, Kissinger argues that “an extended period of American involvement is required and some degree of internationalization. But whatever the process, its prerequisite is America’s willingness to see it through. Success is the only exit strategy.”

He continues with long-term implications for American foreign policy, offering critiques to both the neo-cons and the traditionalists. "The advocates of an interest-based foreign policy must recognize that support for democracy is a fundamental goal that has to be built into American policy. The proponents of a value-based foreign policy need to understand that their challenge is no longer to establish their principle but to implement it, and that down their road beckons not only democracy but ungovernable vacuums. The advocates of the important role of democracy in American foreign policy have won their intellectual battle. But institution-building requires not only doctrine but a vision recognizing cultural and historical circumstance. Such humility is not an abdication of American values; it is the only way to implement these values effectively."

As far as I can tell, Kissinger is saying intervention is sometimes required, but that we need prudent interventions. At the time, Iraq seemed like the right intervention and that carrying a moral conviction to implement a kind of democracy or human rights element into our foreign policy was the American thing to do, as America is so caught up in human rights on all kinds of levels. But, Kissinger stops short there by also saying that implementing a democracy is very difficult and requires institution building that is rooted in historical and cultural values. This will not happen overnight - as VDH and Kurth already told us from their own perspectives.

Kissinger offers some kind of a prescription here, but is not detailed enough about what exactly must be done in Iraq. The only solution he offers for Iraq is that we must not fail. If we fail, that will be a victory for the jihadists over Western values. In effect, he is saying to those that want to pull out of Iraq: whether you think we should be there or not, going forward from here, we must make sure that "success is our only exit strategy." With that point, I wholeheartedly agree. The next question, three years later in 2007, is defining what we will mean by "success."