03767nam 2200637Ia 450 991045992680332120200520144314.00-8014-5977-X10.7591/9780801459771(CKB)2670000000080960(OCoLC)726824257(CaPaEBR)ebrary10457617(SSID)ssj0000484011(PQKBManifestationID)11338881(PQKBTitleCode)TC0000484011(PQKBWorkID)10574228(PQKB)11369903(MiAaPQ)EBC3137996(MdBmJHUP)muse28756(DE-B1597)478366(OCoLC)979740398(DE-B1597)9780801459771(Au-PeEL)EBL3137996(CaPaEBR)ebr10457617(CaONFJC)MIL681790(EXLCZ)99267000000008096020090605d2010 uy 0engurcn|||||||||txtccrThe eccentric realist[electronic resource] Henry Kissinger and the shaping of American foreign policy /Mario Del PeroIthaca Cornell University Press20101 online resource (201 p.)Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph1-322-50508-X 0-8014-4759-3 Includes bibliographical references and index.Front matter --Contents --Introduction --1. The Crisis of Containment --2. Kissinger and Kissingerism --3. Kissingerism in Action --4. The Domestic Critique of Kissinger --Conclusion --Notes --IndexIn The Eccentric Realist, Mario Del Pero questions Henry Kissinger's reputation as the foreign policy realist par excellence. Del Pero shows that Kissinger has been far more ideological and inconsistent in his policy formulations than is commonly realized. Del Pero considers the rise and fall of Kissinger's foreign policy doctrine over the course of the 1970's-beginning with his role as National Security Advisor to Nixon and ending with the collapse of détente with the Soviet Union after Kissinger left the scene as Ford's outgoing Secretary of State. Del Pero shows that realism then (not unlike realism now) was as much a response to domestic politics as it was a cold, hard assessment of the facts of international relations. In the early 1970's, Americans were weary of ideological forays abroad; Kissinger provided them with a doctrine that translated that political weariness into foreign policy. Del Pero argues that Kissinger was keenly aware that realism could win elections and generate consensus. Moreover, over the course of the 1970's it became clear that realism, as practiced by Kissinger, was as rigid as the neoconservativism that came to replace it. In the end, the failure of the détente forged by the realists was not the defeat of cool reason at the hands of ideologically motivated and politically savvy neoconservatives. Rather, the force of American exceptionalism, the touchstone of the neocons, overcame Kissinger's political skills and ideological commitments. The fate of realism in the 1970's raises interesting questions regarding its prospects in the early years of the twenty-first century.RealismPolitical aspectsUnited StatesConservatismUnited StatesUnited StatesForeign relationsElectronic books.RealismPolitical aspectsConservatism973.924092Del Pero Mario176495MiAaPQMiAaPQMiAaPQBOOK9910459926803321The eccentric realist2481780UNINA