ORIGINAL: Alamander
ORIGINAL: Alfred
IIRC, Kissinger's doctoral thesis, and if it wasn't that, it was certainly the theme of his main scholarly book (which I read so many years ago I've forgotten its title[:)]) was the interplay of an uneven number of Great Powers. Which meant Europe primarily in the 1700s. It was the balancing act between them which most exercised Kissinger's mind.
Alfred
His book was based on his dissertation and an edited, more focused version of the dissertation, focused only the reconstruction of a European order after the Napoleonic wars, if I recall correctly.
There was a flurry of academic work on the Congress of Vienna and the "Concert of Europe" following World War II in academia. The best study of this period, however, remains Ferraro's The Reconstruction of Europe, https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dl ... 1/mode/2up, which was my required reading on the subject for my candidacy exams. No one thought much of Kissinger's work, or at least, I don't recall anyone mentioning it. Of course, I didn't go to Harvard... lol, and my advisors in European history were from the Sorbonne and UC Santa Barbara... so they weren't Harvard folk either.
It was my tedious task as an undergraduate to have to write a paper on Kissinger's view on diplomacy. That entailed reading his book (the one based on his doctoral dissertation). Thankfully I didn't have to read any other subsequent work focused on the European order after the Napoleonic wars. That probably explains our different recollections.
C18th century had 4 strong great powers (Great Britain, France (Spain), Austria and Russia. The fifth, and clearly much weaker 5th Great Power being Prussia. It was the interplay of how the Balance of Power (with particular emphasis on how Prussia survived) was played which occupied Kissingner's mind. That isn't actually the same thing as Realpolitick..
By comparison most of the C19th was not really an European Balance of Power exercise. For a couple of reasons. One being France not being the same powerhouse it had been. Remember in the C18th France, due to the dynastic connection, was often able to control the still significant Spanish assets to greatly augment its own power projection. The loss of the south
American colonies greatly reduced the potential French power in the C19th. Plus the industrial revolution was not kind to French power. Nor was it kind to Austrian power, or Prussia until it was able to convert itself into a united Germany.
The bottom line was the long peace of the C19th didn't really excite Kissinger. It was the constant maneuvering of the C18th and their wars which interested Kissinger in terms of how to apply it to international relations in the Cold War with all the proxy wars. Being charitable however, one could credit Kissinger with having the foresight of seeing the potential of the Cold War turning into a multipolar Cold War rather than the duopoly which it effectively was when he was a major player in international politics.
I do recall not being impressed at the time by Kissinger's writings. As a historical work it was adequate but as a political science treatise I found nothing novel, certainly nothing worthy of conferring a doctorate. However as a mere undergraduate, I was probably missing the big picture for there had to be some merit in the work to justify it being set as a study document.
Alfred
; Julia Child
