The Real KISSINGER

El más desconcertantemente eficaz ejemplo de la escuela de la Realpolitik en política exterior y actor principal de la Guerra Fría, Henry Kissinger, explica sus conceptos sobre la política internacional en la actualidad:

(...) fundamental philosophical differences divide the U.S and Europe across a range of key foreign policy issues. Europeans and Americans, I suggested, disagree as to both means and ends--especially the legitimacy of the pre-emptive use of force without an explicit blessing from the Security Council, as well as in their basic assessment of the gravity of the threats posed by transnational terror networks, which cannot be either bargained with or deterred.
The real difference, Mr. Kissinger interjected, lay in "what government[s] can ask of their people." It is because "European governments are not able any more to ask their people for great sacrifices," he argued, that they have so readily opted for a "soft power" approach to so many foreign policy issues. This will, of necessity, make it harder for Europe to reach a consensus with the U.S.
This is exactly what makes dealing effectively with growing threats so difficult. The question of how to deal with Iran and its nuclear ambitions naturally comes to mind. There is no doubt that Iran's acquisition of nuclear weapons would be an extremely destabilizing development and cannot be tolerated by the U.S. Mr. Kissinger's view is that the U.S. must make a serious effort with Iran. He said that negotiations could work in the right circumstances and if there was enough determination behind them. "What you mustn't do," he cautioned, "is to identify diplomacy with escalating [Western] concessions." Right now we are "sliding into a position that we neither negotiate enough nor put out enough red lines."

Algo que irremediablemente me recuerda lo del último incidente en la Cumbre Iberoamericana: apapachar a los autócratas y tiranos puede costar caro.

Entrevista publicada en el Wall Street Journal. Via BlogBis

Tags: Henry Kissinger Realpolitik Cumbre Iberoamericana política internacional