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A Conciliatory Kissinger?: Analyzing Accommodationist Approaches at the Bab-el-Mandeb and the Panama Canal
VanSise, Casey F.
VanSise, Casey F.
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Conference paper
Date
2025-03-15
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History
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DOI
https://doi.org/10.34944/qbnf-zw47
Abstract
The late Henry A. Kissinger, who served in the policy roles of both US National Security Advisor (1969-75) and US Secretary of State (1973-77), has frequently been regarded as a steadfast and even archetypal practitioner of realism (or realpolitik) by historians of US foreign relations, alongside other analysts and scholars of international affairs. In particular, Kissinger has often accurately been assessed as a policymaker who prioritized seeking a modus vivendi with other great powers such as the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China, even if and when this came at the expense of sacrificing the interests of less dominant or influential actors in the international system, yielding tragic outcomes in assorted societies ranging from Chile to East Timor during the Cold War. Nevertheless, a variety of commentary and scholarship, primarily published during the twenty-first century, has attempted to complicate this not altogether wrong but somewhat reductive image of Kissinger as an uncompromising Thucydidean in the tradition of the "Melian Dialogue." Consistent with this recent literature that questions or critiques the actual extent of Kissinger's realpolitik in practice, multiple sources from US foreign relations and intelligence documents to the autobiography of Representative Paul Findley (R-IL) provide evidence that Kissinger sought to improve relations with and accommodate the interests of small states such as Panama under a non-aligned military government, and Marxist-Leninist regimes in South Yemen and Somalia, during his policymaking tenure, even as adjacent waterways were considered geostrategically-vital arteries by Kissinger and contemporaneous foreign policy analysts, intellectuals, and practitioners.
Description
A paper presented at the 30th James A. Barnes Graduate History Conference, which took place March 14-15, 2025 in Philadelphia, PA.
Citation
VanSise, Casey F. "A Conciliatory Kissinger?: Analyzing Accommodationist Approaches at the Bab-el-Mandeb and the Panama Canal." Paper presented at 30th James A. Barnes Graduate History Conference, Philadelphia, PA, March 2025.
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