My world view

Henry Kissinger writes about Richard Nixon in his Diplomacy from 1994 that "No American president posessed a greater knowledge of international affairs. ... Nixon was not a student of history in the same way as Churchill or de Gaulle had been. He generally learned just enough about a country's past to absorb the rudiments of the facts pertaining to its circumstances--and often not even that much."

I find this interesting since I have been trying to figure out what the best background for studies in political science is. Nixon was not, like John Locke, a physician by trainíng but rather a lawyer. I have read that Ronald Reagan did not know history either. Being a president might differ from being a political scientist, though. It is more of a managerial endeavour.

Kissinger writes: "In Nixon's perception, peace and harmony were not the natural order of things but temporary oases in a perilous world where stability could only be presented by vigilant effort." Kissinger and Nixon were not idealists but rather realists that believed in the balance of power. Interestingly, the time when he ruled had many similarities to ours. We are at war and in a finance crisis (war) just like him and wonder what new interational system will form when the relative power of the US is diminishing.

Ed Crane, the libertarian, also believe that the difference between order and chaos is small. I agree. One example is when the US, Germany and Japan all went for the nuclear bomb at approximately the same time. Then as now it is important that the US is powerful. Their system have earned that judgement. Others are new kids on the block. I imagine seeing a positive trend through history which calls for optimism.

President Obama is entering this scenario now. Without Kissinger and with little foreign relations experience. Will he make AfPak, already Obama's war, into his Vietnam instead of chilling out?

Another development is that trade will be the dominant foreign relationships in otherwise isolationistic America, Europe, China and Japan. Diplomacy less important, for a while. With ministers of finance doing the talking.