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About this quote

What does it mean?
Kissinger asserts that foreign policy is driven by national interests rather than ideological conversion.
In plain terms
Foreign policy is about interests, not spreading beliefs.
What can you take from it?
National interests guide policy over ideology.

Where it applies

  • diplomacy
  • policy making

Putting it to work

  • analyzing diplomacy
  • evaluating foreign policy

Questions to consider

  • Is foreign policy pragmatic?
  • Does ideology matter?

Another view

It ignores cases where ideology does drive policy.

More from Henry Kissinger

  1. For other nations, utopia is a blessed past never to be recovered; for Americans it is just beyond the horizon.

    Permalink to quote #21

  2. History knows no resting place and no plateaus.

    Permalink to quote #23

  3. Even a paranoid has some real enemies.

    Permalink to quote #20

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