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The historical analysis itself is classic Kissinger, well written and full of the essentials of the political realism for which Kissinger is famous. It also serves to provide a basic delineation of the forces that molded the history of the first half of nineteenth century Europe until Napoleon III again sought to establish French continental hegemony only to be overcome by Bismark and Germany. This study of diplomacy is in the form of a commentary and therefore is necessarily incomplete. I do not think it is misleading.
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Of course it should be clear to everyone that a book over forty years old is of limited value today, especially as the Cold War is over. Kissinger warns us about the now disproved missile gap and fails to appreciate the Chinese-Soviet split, which had already started.
My one major disagreement concerns Kissinger's contention that limited use of nuclear weapons in war could be more appropriate than convential ones. He ignores the profound consequences crossing such a line would entail. He is right that any side using regular forces would be vulnerable to nuclear attack, but that does not mean that we must use them to start with! In fact, not using them sends the world an important message about how serious we are in wanting to avoid a total, nuclear war.
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I specially liked how he dissected the personalites of the actors in this play, Napoleon, Metternich,Castlereagh and Talleyrand, and the manner in which he highlights that those personalities influenced the course of history.
This is an important period, because as the title of the book claims, a world was restaured. The Concert of Europe began and a new era of peace started, thanks to the perspicacy of Metternich and after the instability caused by the napoleonic wars. In this book we get to know a little more of Kissinger as an historian but also as a diplomat, as he shows us the intricacies of politics and diplomacy.
Even if this book is sometimes a little slow, I give it my highest recommendation, because it leaves you with much more knowledge, not only on this period but also on political realism.