Kissinger is a great intellect and we are lucky to have him still around. However, it should be recalled that policies he championed in the past such as detente arguably were disastrously wrong.
In this piece, I am inclined to accept his version of certain realities. But the main advice seems to be to avoid a hectoring tone on human rights issues. Would that be something like the hectoring tone used by Amnesty International in describing Guantanmo Bay as a "gulag"?
It strikes me that on human rights abuses, there is a crying need for a greater worldwide commitment to opposing them, but with much less leftist moonbatism. But I don't think it can be done with the great subtlety for which Kissinger asks.
I completely agree - and this is why I was hoping for some good FReeper discussion about this article.
Kissinger is in some ways like Morris - he's a great - no, GREAT - theoretical analyst, but it seems he's often falling very short of applying that analysis to the real world. I'm not sure where this article falls. Since it doesn't really raise a whole load of strong policy recommendations, I kind of like the way it does "conscious raising" about some issues in ways I've not quite seen done as effectively.
I do agree with you that it is tough to find the balance of attempting to "enforce" human rights and "allowing" China or another nation to discover for themselves the best path.
China is a multi-ethnic multi-cultural country. There has been and continues to be regional rivalry. There continues to be separatist movements in some of the regions such as Tibet....It may be true that in the past China has searched for relations with the US but that does not mean China has become an ally."
A very small excerpt of a very nice post#16, Wiz. Thanks for your part in this discussion.