Is Kissinger correct in describing US foreign policy as almost entirely moralistic? Can you think of ways, either described in the book or not, where the US has in fact acted with the cold-blooded calculation that Kissinger sees as the core of an effective foreign policy? What about in the decades following this book’s publication?

What lessons can the United States, or other contemporary powers, draw from Kissinger’s examples of entirely monarchical states (such as Richelieu and Metternich), who did not have to deal with either industrialization or democracy? How might industrialization and democracy complicate their approaches in the present day?

What, in Kissinger’s estimation, made the Congress of Vienna such a successful example of peacemaking? Does it contain lessons that might be applied to contemporary conflicts in the book’s view?