Description
Book SynopsisMario Del Pero questions the depiction of Kissinger as the foreign policy realist par excellence, revealing him to have been far more ideological and inconsistent in his policy formulations than is commonly realized.
Trade Review"Mario Del Pero brings a fresh and vivid intelligence to his analysis of American foreign and domestic policy as shaped and practiced by Henry Kissinger. The Eccentric Realist is a brilliant discussion of the decidedly unrealistic nature of Kissinger's realism, the circularity of his bipolar view of the world, and his ultimate defeat at the hands of newly powerful neoconservative forces. The timeliness of Del Pero's work is daily evident in the return, perhaps only temporary, of ostensible realism to the conduct of American foreign policy."—Marilyn B. Young, New York University, author of The Vietnam Wars, 1945–1990
"The Eccentric Realist is a remarkable piece of scholarship. By viewing Henry Kissinger both as a realist in the European tradition and as an American attuned to U.S. moral absolutism, Del Pero lays bare the inherent contradictions in the détente project and the causes for its ultimate failure."—Odd Arne Westad, author of The Global Cold War: Third World Interventions and the Making of Our Times
Table of ContentsIntroduction
1. The Crisis of Containment
2. Kissinger and Kissingerism
3. Kissingerism in Action
4. The Domestic Critique of Kissinger
ConclusionNotes
Index
