Henry Kissinger on Democracy

Henry Kissinger, the former Secretary of State, consistently framed his foreign policy through the lens of Realpolitik, holding that international stability and the balance of power were the paramount objectives, often at the expense of democratic principles abroad. He famously declared a preference for order over justice when the two conflicted, suggesting in his scholarship that he would always choose the former. This stance was evident in his support for actions, such as the coup in Chile to overthrow the democratically elected government of Salvador Allende, because maintaining a non-communist bloc was deemed more crucial to global equilibrium. He viewed the promotion of democracy by the United States as a secondary, sometimes irrelevant, concern for immediate diplomacy.

However, Kissinger acknowledged the essential ideological importance of America as a democracy, particularly for an immigrant like himself, and recognized that American statesmen could not completely ignore the preference for democracy in other nations. He cautioned that stating unachievable democratic transformation goals within an administration's timeframe was not idealistic but practically irrelevant, risking greater confrontation. While he dismissed the human rights provisions included in the Helsinki Final Act as a concession to liberal consciences, some scholars argue that this very concession eventually galvanized dissent against authoritarian regimes, suggesting an underestimation of democracy's long-term force, even by the pragmatic statesman.